Sustainable Economy

The Green New Deal is touted as the beginnings of a new Industrial Age where the carbon economy based on fossil fuels and high emissions of carbon dioxide will be replaced by renewable energy and other green technologies. For Scotland it offers a way of getting out of the oil industry and builds on the country's strength in engineering, particularly marine engineering now that the deployment offshore wind farms are now routine and finally tidal energy is starting to make some headway. The promise for a surge in new jobs, new opportunities and new markets but the reality is that often this more a process of wishful thinking rather than hard-nosed business development. This is compounded by the current Scottish Government's preference for deals with private capital which sees ownership and so the profits from developments leave the country with little or no change for the majority of the population.