The Future Is In Our Hands

Yesterday wasn't a very good day for the Scottish renewables industry, publicity-wise.

First out of the blocks to do the country down was the US finance giant Citigroup, who issued a report saying that no one should invest in renewables in Scotland just in case we vote for independence at some point in the future. It completely ignores the reality of lots of companies from around the world investing in Scottish renewables and setting up offices here. The wave and tidal resources in Orkney, for example, offer the most advanced and exciting site in the world for experimentation and deployment of test rigs.

The second report came from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, telling the Scottish Government that they can't possibly provide 100% of our power from renewables so why are they even trying? They've said this before, and I'll repeat what I said then: I'd rather try and fail than not try at all. There's no point in having unambitious targets. The IME can't seem to see past the nearest oil terminal, which is surprising because you would think that they would like more jobs for their members.

It was disappointing to see the opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament using these two reports to attack the government, and also to suppress the country's ambitions. Of course, you could argue that Iain Gray has a vested interest in attacking renewables as he has both a coal power station and a nuclear power station in his constituency. However, he also has the UK's second-largest windfarm in the constituency too. He clearly doesn't see that as being as sexy as a coal plant.

The other thing that was disappointing was that both reports completely missed the point of renewables. They seemed to see wind, wave and tidal as a big conspiracy that Scotland has, a plan to break away from the UK. Renewables aren't a conspiracy, they're a necessity. As the climate changes, as the oil runs out, Scotland - not just Scotland, the entire world - needs the alternative infrastructure already there and available. If we wait until we've rung the last drop of oil out of the North Sea, it's too late. If we wait until the global temperature hits the "magic" 2 degrees that the politicians say we mustn't go over, it's too late.

We can't wait until the future to build the future Scotland.