How can economic benefits from Scotlands energy industries and the development of clean technologies be maximised?
3.19 The STUC hopes that this inquiry will address the unfortunate fact that the wider economic and employment impacts of energy policy are too often overlooked. There is a danger of repeating the old story of Scottish innovation leading to manufacturing gain elsewhere due to lack of investment. 3.20 Given that Scotland’s renewable energy resources are widely recognised to be the most abundant in Europe, our performance in generating jobs has been disappointing. Denmark, Spain and Germany have all built large, job-rich renewable sectors through a variety of means. The STUC believes that the UK and Scotland’s poor performance in this respect reflects an unwarranted faith in markets to deliver socially beneficial outcomes and a deeply embedded antipathy to anything that smacks of industrial policy – other countries better understand that intervention is required in the early stages of development in order to secure technologies and ensure that employment is created. 3.21 Maximising indus
