Executive sets energy targets Efficiency drive welcomed by

SCOTLAND will adopt a strategy to use less oil, gas and electricity as part of a bid to cut the pollution which is causing climate chaos.

Ministers will announce this week that they want an energy efficiency strategy which should include more sustainable transport, better insulation of buildings and more efficient industrial machinery.

Experts believe a widespread series of small, cheap and easy technical fixes could prevent the emission of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and other climate-wrecking greenhouse gases. At least 20per cent of Scotland's energy is being wasted, amounting to a loss of Pounds1.3 billion every year, yet the country has lacked any overarching plan for improving energy efficiency.

Ministers have preferred to rely instead on a disparate variety of projects, such as measures to tackle fuel poverty and adverts to persuade consumers to cut back on energy use.

That will change on Tuesday, when environment minister Ross Finnie addresses a major conference on climate change in Edinburgh. Backed by deputy first minister Jim Wallace, he will announce plans to develop an energy efficiency strategy.

"Energy efficiency is a key element of the Executive's climate change strategy, " said an Executive spokeswoman.

"Improved efficiency is generally agreed to be the most costeffective way of reducing demand and benefiting the environment through reduced greenhouse gas emissions."

One example of the kind of initiative central to the strategy is the advice on energy conservation techniques offered to people living in Edinburgh's tenements. The Executive's Energy Saving Trust hopes the service will expand elsewhere.

The ministers' announcement will be welcomed by environmental groups, who are already demanding that the strategy includes specific targets for saving energy in different sectors, particularly in homes. "That is crucial, " said Dr Richard Dixon, head of policy at WWF Scotland.

According to Dr Dan Barlow, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, energy conservation has to be a major part of any sensible policy on climate change. "Energy efficiency is the Cinderella of technologies, often overlooked by those fixated only with increasing generating capacity, " he argued.

"The cheapest form of energy is that which we don't need to produce in the first place."

The Executive's move on energy efficiency is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at heading off growing criticism of its efforts to combat climate change. Last Thursday Finnie launched a review of the Executive's climate change programme, and for the first time suggested setting targets for cutting pollution.

As predicted by the Sunday Herald, the Executive also published figures last week showing that emissions of greenhouse gases fell by nearly 6per cent between 1990 and 2002.

This reduction is better than previously, but still a long way behind the UK as a whole, which achieved a reduction of almost 15per cent.

And on Friday Wallace announced Pounds6.6 million funding for the Scottish Community Householder Renewable Initiative for a further three years. This is a scheme which provides grants and expert advice on installing solar panels and wind turbines at community centres, schools and homes.

Such a burst of activity on climate change is no accident.

Ministers are preparing the ground for hosting the G8 summit of world leaders at Gleneagles next July, when climate change is due to be at the top of the agenda.

This week, Green MSPs are preparing to launch a "climate change challenge" which will spell out the seven tests that ministers will have to pass if they are serious about tackling the problem. "An energy efficiency strategy is a basic first step, " said the Green speaker on the environment, Mark Ruskell MSP.

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