Eighty per cent of the Scottish public back onshore wind farms.
SCOTS are the nation most in favour of windpower in the UK according to a new poll.
The polling, released on 19 October by climate charity 10:10 and conducted by ComRes, shows that 80 per cent of people in Scotland favour onshore windfarms compared to 73 per cent in the rest of the UK.
The environmental charity WWF Scotland cited the findings to emphasise public support for renewables like solar, hydro, wind and tidal over other alternatives such as nuclear power.
“With such great public support, Ministers should press on to ensure Scotland becomes the EU's first fully renewable electricity nation." Lang Banks
Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland said: “It's great to know that support in Scotland for renewables, especially onshore wind, remains at such high levels. The reality is that when given a choice the public will always support clean renewables over polluting fossil fuels or nuclear power.
“As well as powering our homes and businesses, renewables are helping to cut carbon and support over 20,000 jobs across the country. With such great public support, Ministers should press on to ensure Scotland becomes the EU's first fully renewable electricity nation.”
The polling follows research showing that a record amount of climate warming has been offset by Scotland’s renewable energy. A study by Scottish Renewables showed that the Scots renewables sector has reduced carbon emission by more than 13 million tonnes a year, a rise on the previous year of a million tonnes.
Renewable energy employs 21,000 people in Scotland across sectors including onshore and offshore wind, biomass, solar, hydro and renewable heat.
Banks added: “It's fantastic news to learn that record amounts of climate-damaging carbon emissions have been avoided in Scotland thanks to increasing renewable electricity generation.
“These figures highlight just one example of the many social and economic benefits that have come from shifting our electricity system to a clean renewable one. However, with electricity generation now accounting for less than 25 per cent of Scotland’s climate change emissions, it’s now time to begin to reap the same benefits by increasing the use of renewables in our heat and transport sectors.”
Renewable energy employs 21,000 people in Scotland across sectors including onshore and offshore wind, biomass, solar, hydro and renewable heat. The industry invested £910m in Scotland’s economy in 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Picture courtesy of 10:10
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