One week in post

My first week as Chief Executive is now past, and an eventful week it was too.

We held our annual AGM and hosted a conference on land rights over the weekend, both of which were well attended and very successful. We also organised an energy briefing event for MSPs and other stakeholders, which was literally packed out.

The fact that the event was so busy shouldn’t really have come as a surprise, as energy is a hot topic just now, what with the Scottish Government’s commitment to 100% renewables for Scotland by 2020, and Switzerland and Germany’s decisions last week to phase out their nuclear power plants and increase the amount of demand reduction, energy efficiency and renewables electricity generation that they do. This is incredibly welcome news and will hopefully encourage other nations to follow suit.

Our own report, The Power of Scotland Secured, researched by GL Garrad Hassan, shows that Scotland’s renewable electricity generation can grow to comfortably exceed our electricity needs, and without endangering protected sites and biodiversity. The Scottish Government’s target of 100% renewables by 2020 is completely achievable.

In fact, renewables could provide 185% of Scotland’s electricity needs by 2030, providing significant export revenue and creating thousands of jobs in the process.

The new Scottish political landscape will present us with a number of challenges and opportunities. One of the most urgent will be to help the Scottish Government deliver immediate and urgent action to put the infrastructure in place to achieve its own target.