[Shadow_Group] SCOTLAND will use less oil, gas and electricity in bid to cut the pollution which is causing climate chaos

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

The aim here is efficiency, not austerity. Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy. 

Vice President Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton, Inc. (an oil services company.), (as quoted in the New York Times, May 1, 2001). 



SCOTLAND will adopt a strategy to use less oil, gas and electricity as 
part of a bid to cut the pollution which is causing climate chaos.

Ministers will announce this week that they want an energy efficiency 
strategy which should include more sustainable transport, better 
insulation of buildings and more efficient industrial machinery.

Experts believe a widespread series of small, cheap and easy technical 
fixes could prevent the emission of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide 
and other climate-wrecking greenhouse gases. At least 20% of Scotland’s 
energy is being wasted, amounting to a loss of £1.3 billion every year, 
yet the country has lacked any overarching plan for improving energy 
efficiency.

Ministers have preferred to rely instead on a disparate variety of 
projects, such as measures to tackle fuel poverty and adverts to 
persuade consumers to cut back on energy use.

That will change on Tuesday, when environment minister Ross Finnie 
addresses a major conference on climate change in Edinburgh. Backed by 
Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace, he will announce plans to develop an 
energy efficiency strategy.

“Energy efficiency is a key element of the Executive’s climate change 
strategy,” said an Executive spokeswoman. “Improved efficiency is 
generally agreed to be the most cost-effective way of reducing demand 
and benefiting the environment through reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”

One example of the kind of initiative central to the strategy is the 
advice on energy conservation techniques offered to people living in 
Edinburgh’s tenements. The Executive’s Energy Saving Trust hopes the 
service will expand elsewhere.

The ministers’ announcement will be welcomed by environmental groups, 
who are already demanding that the strategy includes specific targets 
for saving energy in different sectors, particularly in homes. “That is 
crucial,” said Dr Richard Dixon, head of policy at WWF Scotland.

According to Dr Dan Barlow, head of research at Friends of the Earth 
Scotland, energy conservation has to be a major part of any sensible 
policy on climate change. “Energy efficiency is the Cinderella of 
technologies, often overlooked by those fixated only with increasing 
generating capacity,” he argued.

“ The cheapest form of energy is that which we don’t need to produce in 
the first place.”

The Executive’s move on energy efficiency is the latest in a series of 
initiatives aimed at heading off growing criticism of its efforts to 
combat climate change. Last Thursday Finnie launched a review of the 
Executive’s climate change programme, and for the first time suggested 
setting targets for cutting pollution.

As predicted by the Sunday Herald, the Executive also published figures 
last week showing that emissions of greenhouse gases fell by nearly 6% 
between 1990 and 2002. This reduction is better than previously, but 
still a long way behind the UK as a whole, which achieved a reduction of 
almost 15%. And on Friday Wallace announced £6.6 million funding for the 
Scottish Community Householder Renewable Initiative for a further three 
years. This is a scheme which provides grants and expert advice on 
installing solar panels and wind turbines at community centres, schools 
and homes.

Such a burst of activity on climate change is no accident. Ministers are 
preparing the ground for hosting the G8 summit of world leaders at 
Gleneagles next July, when climate change is due to be at the top of the 
agenda.

This week, Green MSPs are preparing to launch a “climate change 
challenge” which will spell out the seven tests that ministers will have 
to pass if they are serious about tackling the problem. “An energy 
efficiency strategy is a basic first step,” says the Green speaker on 
the environment, Mark Ruskell MSP.

05 December 2004

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