Lorna Slater: Scotland's green potential is being held back by Westminster

As most people now know, I work in tidal energy. The project I have been working on has just launched the world’s biggest tidal device into Scottish waters. We were blessed with calm waters as this giant turbine made its way from Dundee, where it was assembled, to Orkney, where it will generate considerable amounts of clean energy.

At 2MW, this turbine will be able to power 2000 homes using an infinite resource: the Moon’s gravitational pull.

This is world-leading, cutting-edge technology, developed, assembled and installed in Scotland. And yet this success has come despite Westminster, not because of it. Scotland has huge renewables potential, but it has been held back by the UK Government’s lack of support.

So after working hard for the last year on a project which has caught the attention of the world, I won’t let anyone tell me Scotland is too poor or too wee to be a successful independent nation.

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I am much more positive about Scotland’s future. It’s such a strange argument to make – that Scotland is unique among small countries in the world because it couldn’t possibly be independent.

Independence is an important step towards the Scotland the Scottish Greens want to build. However, there is no reason why the road to a greener Scotland shouldn’t start now. The SNP have spent too long maintaining the status quo instead of starting to build a greener Scotland with the powers we have already.

We are in a climate emergency, and action cannot wait until after independence. The Scottish Greens’ manifesto lays out a green infrastructure plan which would address Scotland’s climate emissions and deliver 100,000 green jobs. It’s a positive vision for the next five years and sets Scotland up for an independent future.

We need to do things differently from the UK and mitigate the terrible policies made at Westminster that promise more grinding austerity, more nuclear weapons and more planet-destroying economics.

Building a green and fair economy starts with a new deal for workers. While employment law and much of social security is reserved, there is still much we can do to better establish a real living wage, to plug the holes in our social security safety net and introduce progressive taxation.

We have proposed a tax on millionaire’s wealth and on windfall profits from the pandemic. That’s because the top fifth wealthiest people in the UK saved an additional £23 billion in the first three months of lockdown alone. Online retailers, many of whom avoid tax anyway, have made a killing out of people being stuck at home.

Scotland’s manufacturing sector has been in long-term decline, and we want to do something about that. We need industrial strategies based on people and place so that investment is targeted in the low-carbon industries of the future, with a programme of technical skills development to match.

Energy policy, too, is reserved, but the need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable is too urgent to wait for independence. Delivering green, zero-carbon energy is absolutely fundamental to us meeting our 2030 climate target and securing our survival.

Instead, Westminster has just rubber-stamped £16bn investment in exploring for new oil wells in the North Sea. This is a catastrophic decision for our chances of survival as a species. The SNP need to wake up to the urgency and stop backdoor funding for this expansion.

Meanwhile onshore wind has stagnated, offshore wind has been held back by the UK’s subsidy system – Contracts for Difference – and tidal, as I’ve already said, has lacked support.

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If the UK Government won’t invest in our future there should be an emergency derogation of powers to allow the Scottish Government to create a long-term support package for renewables.

If they don’t do that, the Scottish Government can still top-up support, invest in local infrastructure development to maximise local community benefits and support innovation. The Scottish Government can still invest in upgrading existing wind turbines to more efficient and powerful ones.

The sight of the O2 tidal turbine being lowered into the sea in Dundee was impressive and an indication of what Scotland can do, even when it is being held back by Westminster. But we can do so much more.

We could be leading Europe in renewable energy and play a vital role in driving down global climate emissions before it’s too late.

Scotland has a brilliant future. We have the resources. We have the talent. We have world-leading industries. I’ve already been working on that. But next week if you want a brilliant future you will have to vote for it. This is your chance to vote like our future depends on it.