Sustainable Scotland

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Scotland has a huge opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs in the green energy economy - but the skills system has to adapt quickly and flexibly to ensure that the maximum number of people benefit from the shift.

That's one of the key messages in the latest podcast in The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland series, Green Skills: Two Little Words, One Massive Opportunity.

Our guests include Lauren Braidwood, National Energy Skills Accelerator Project Manager at Energy Transition Zone Ltd in Aberdeen and Jenny Macdonald, Sector Development and Skills Planning Manager for the Oil and Gas Transition at Skills Development Scotland.

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The UK could achieve "something big" in offshore wind if all parties focus on finding solutions to speed up the time it takes to get turbines spinning - and get power into the grid more efficiently.

Scott McCallum, a Partner and renewable energy expert with law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn, examines the challenges facing offshore wind in the latest episode of The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland podcast.

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The Scottish net zero target is five years ahead of the rest of the UK (and much of the world), but experts told The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland podcast it can be done - but it won’t be easy.

Our host David Lee speaks with: 

Richard Cockburn, Partner and UK Head of Energy at legal firm Womble Bond Dickinson.

Joanne Allday, Strategic Business Development manager at Port of Cromarty Firth.

Ronnie Quinn, Chief Executive of NECCUS.

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The trend towards sustainable investment is not a short-term fad - and will become the standard way that people choose to invest their money, experts believe.

Ian Campbell, a Director and Chartered Financial Planner with AAB Wealth, tells the Sustainable Scotland podcast series: "This is not a fad or a short-term investment craze that we're going through. In the future, it won’t even be called sustainable investing, I think it will just be investing and people will assume it is the norm."

We also hear from Jim Whittington of Dimensional, a global asset management firm with almost $700 billion under management.

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With the UN climate change summit now well underway in Glasgow and the city abuzz with delegates from across the world, details are slowly emerging of deals and renewed hopes for the future.

But as negotiations and talks continue inside the debating chamber, what is Scotland doing in its own right to avert ecological catastrophe?

Where are the innovators trying new things, the business leaders shaping change or the individuals who, with every switching off at the plug to save on energy, are collectively doing much, much more than they might imagine?

My name is Shaun Milne, a journalist looking at how we as a nation are playing our part in delivering climate action, and hopefully discovering more hurrah, hurrah around the country than blah blah blah.

I’ve been on a journey in my eco campervan taking me from the Highland to the Borders, and  places in between, speaking with people about what they are doing to be more sustainable and their thoughts on the summit itself as I too arrive in the dear green place.

So join me on The Road to Cop 26: Our Journey to Net Zero and Beyond – brought to you in partnership with The Scotsman and Smart Energy GB – available to download wherever you get your podcasts.

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In 2019 Scotland made history by becoming the world's first government to declare a climate emergency. Now after Brexit and both a UK and Scottish election, it finds itself at a crossroads over which direction it should go to tackle it.

With Cop26 looming, as the SNP and Greens talk ‘co-operation’ in the face of consternation from the Conservatives, Labour and others, as Westminster considers oil and gas even as the IPCC warns against and business counts the cost of a global pandemic, the decisions made in the coming weeks and months could shape generations.

Among those having their say on the matter was Scotland’s Climate Assembly, established by Scotland’s Climate Change Act (2019), including around 100 people from all walks of life invited to take part in a conversation about what the nation should do.

For this episode Sustainable Scotland host Shaun Milne spoke with Professor Iain Stewart who chaired its evidence group and assembly member Jocelyn Richard after their much anticipated report - which included 81 recommendations for the Scottish Government to act on to tackle the climate emergency - was published.

Jocelyn said: “Some things can only be driven by government. Government has the resources to put in place the funding that we need, the investment that we need and this is considerable to encourage businesses to step up.”

Iain added: “We really need the democratic will of Scottish people that this is the direction of travel we need to go in.”

“It’s the will to make this happen that’s the missing link.”

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