Meeting of the Parliament 07 May 2014
I told Parliament that I would bring those forward in the coming weeks and that is exactly what I intend to do to assist the debate.
While we recognise the importance of a vibrant industry in the North Sea, the Scottish Government is actively working towards the transition to a low-carbon economy. In that respect I agree entirely with the general thrust of Alison Johnstone’s speech about the importance of ensuring that we develop the opportunities that exist to secure the aims and opportunities of a low-carbon economy, and the Government has worked tirelessly within a stable policy framework to promote and develop a renewables industry in Scotland. That strategy is now bearing considerable fruit.
By any measure, Scotland’s renewable energy sector is going from strength to strength. We know that we have an estimated 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential, 25 per cent of Europe’s tidal energy potential and 10 per cent of Europe’s capacity for wave power. We are therefore determined as a Government to ensure that we capture that opportunity and we have set out a framework to achieve that by establishing stretching targets that will enable us to meet at least 30 per cent of Scotland’s overall energy demand from renewable sources by 2020, including the target to meet the equivalent of 100 per cent of gross annual electricity demand from renewables by 2020, with an interim target of 50 per cent by 2015. By any measure, the Government has put in place a clear, robust and consistent policy framework that enables us to achieve those objectives.