First Minister Alex Salmond, has announced that Scottish companies will be given the opportunity to have their say on European financial support for renewables.The announcement was made following a meeting with European Commissioner, who recognised the urgent need to invest in this crucial area. Mr Salmond also highlighted a number of proposed steps the government intends to take in order to work towards the EU target on renewable energy:

- To drive up economic growth by giving reducing or removing business rates.
- To draw on the expertise of the new Council of Economic Advisers.
- To put climate change and Scotland’s renewable potential at the heart of our core economic decision making.
- To bring forward a Government Economic Strategy in the Autumn, designed to lead a national effort.

Mr Salmond said:

“Use of renewable energy must and will expand. I welcome and support the EU target of 20 per cent of energy to be from renewable sources by 2020. But that alone is not sufficient action to tackle climate change. We need to use our fossil fuels in a cleaner way.

“In the project proposed by Scottish and Southern Electricity [SSE] and BP, CO2 is extracted from gas prior to combustion and stored - leaving hydrogen to produce electricity. In other projects CO2 is sequestered after combustion. Scottish Power is working on that approach.

“This is a technology which the UK and world needs - in which Scotland can be a world leader.

“The UK Government has recognised that and the need for financial support for these early projects. But a sense of urgency seems to be completely absent.

“The competition timetable has already posed problems for BP. Last week I wrote again to the UK Government- pressing John Hutton to make sure that the competition timetable does not slip - again.

Source: Scottish Executive

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