Scotland – Make Scotland a clean energy super power – The Labour Party

The climate and nature crisis is the greatest long- term global challenge that we face. The clean energy transition represents a huge opportunity to generate growth, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and give Scotland and the UK energy security once again. That is why clean energy by 2030 is Labour’s second mission.

The Conservatives have failed to grasp opportunities in this area for two related reasons. First, because they simply do not accept that economic growth, energy security, lower bills, and addressing climate change can be complementary. Second, because they are ideologically opposed to using the role of the state, including public investment, to guarantee that they are.

The damage done by 14 years of chaotic ‘sticking plaster’ policies was exposed when Putin invaded Ukraine. The cost of fossil fuel energy on the international market rocketed. The Conservatives’ neglect of the UK’s energy infrastructure – and the SNP’s failure to deliver on its own commitment to a public energy company or to improve the energy efficiency of homes – landed Scottish families with among the highest energy bills in Europe. That is just one way we are paying the price. While countries around the world are racing ahead to claim the jobs and wealth that the transition offers, Scotland is losing out.

But it is not too late. Scotland has tremendous untapped advantages: our long coast-line, high winds, shallow waters, universities, and skilled offshore workforce combined with our extensive technological and engineering capabilities developed in the North Sea. With a serious industrial strategy and a genuine partnership between the public and private sectors, Labour is determined that we can still make Scotland and the UK a clean energy superpower.

Labour will take decisive action to seize this economic opportunity. We will shape markets and use public investment to crowd in private funding. At the heart of our approach will be our Green Prosperity Plan where, in partnership with business through our National Wealth Fund, we will invest in the industries of the future. Our plans to harness clean power and invest in home insulation upgrades will deliver the lower bills, good jobs, energy security, and climate leadership Scotland needs.

Labour will provide leadership at home so we can influence others to ensure every country plays their part in meeting our collective obligations to future generations.

Labour will also tackle the nature emergency, where Scotland’s peatlands, forests and natural habitat play an essential role. We will improve access to nature, promote biodiversity, and protect our landscapes and wildlife.

Labour understands the route ahead – we have been clear that this transition presents an opportunity to create good jobs, with no community left behind, and well-paying jobs in existing energy industries. The Conservatives and SNP propose an alternative course which denies reality, delays action and will increase costs for Scotland with greater insecurity and the continuation of jobs and supply chains being offshored. Communities in Scotland are still scarred by the damage the Conservatives did in the 1970s and 1980s with this same chaotic approach. Labour is setting out a different choice, with a plan that will secure the energy jobs of the future in communities across the country.