Community Benefits from Net Zero energy developments consultation

Consultation Response

Credits — Common Weal

Overview

A Common Weal response to the Scottish Government’s review of how and to what extend community benefit payments may be derived from renewable energy developments both on and off shore.

Common Weal champions the necessity for community benefits to be derived from net zero energy projects; however, we will always emphasise the importance of ensuring that any such community initiative is controlled at the local level, with genuine input from the communities themselves, and with public ownership actively promoted throughout.

We are concerned that the Scottish Government may not grasp the vital importance of enabling communities to have a meaningful voice regarding net zero energy developments in their locality, nor fully appreciate the significance of communities directly receiving the tangible benefits of such projects. Municipal-scale, democratic control of energy provision is, in our view, the most effective and equitable means of delivering maximum advantages to low-income and marginalised areas.

Regrettably, Scotland presently lacks the municipal infrastructure required to facilitate this level of local democracy, and for this reason, Common Weal will continue to advocate strongly for greater democratic empowerment at the local level across Scotland. Furthermore, we firmly reject any suggestion that Scotland lacks the capacity to assume greater control over its own energy generation and storage. On the contrary, there are several viable pathways that would support the implementation of public ownership within Scotland’s energy sector.