Earlier this month, SSN's Climate Change Officer, Emma Wilson attended All-Energy Conference. Here are her takeaways from the event:
The All-Energy Conference, the UK’s leading renewable energy and low carbon innovation event, took place at the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow on the 10th and 11th May. The conference sessions covered a broad range of topics which included decarbonising the built environment, transport, industry, supply chains as well as energy storage and renewable energy generation.
The First Minister, Humza Yousaf, spoke at the opening session of the conference. Patrick Harvie (Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights), Kevin Stewart (Minister for Transport) and Gillian Martin (Minister for Energy) were also in attendance and engaged in conference sessions.
Some of the key messages from the First Minister’s speech:
The Scottish Government’s top priorities are to: reduce poverty; and ensure a just green transition.
Consultation responses on the Scottish Government’s draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition plan are currently being analysed.
Offshore Wind: The newly developed Strategic Investment Model will help the government and renewable energy sector make the right investment decisions at the right time.
Hydrogen: the government has committed £100 million, over the rest of this parliamentary session, to supporting the green hydrogen sector. The Hydrogen Innovation Scheme, supports feasibility studies, technical demonstrations, and testing facilities for new ideas about how to produce, store and distribute hydrogen.
The Scottish Government is a willing partner to work with the UK government on:
- Addressing the flaws in the current transmission network charging system which doesn’t properly support Scotland’s renewables sector.
- Announcing a timetable for the Acorn Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage scheme.
- Securing a Just Transition, in particular, for the North East of Scotland.
- Ensuring that Scotland has a strategy for incentivising green investment.