Edinburgh hosts high-profile green investment summit

Over 400 delegates from around the world descended on the Edinburgh International Conference Centre last week for the second Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference.

The meeting brought together investors from banks, low carbon companies and financial sectors to discuss Scotland’s potential contribution to clean energy and carbon reduction.

Among the guest speakers were former US vice president Al Gore, Bloomberg New Energy Finance chief executive Michael Liebriech and chief editor Angus McCrone.

Speaking at the conference, Mr Gore praised the country's efforts, saying: “Scotland has not only provided inspiring leadership, you are exploiting one of the greatest resources anywhere on the planet, with wind onshore and particularly offshore, all sorts of variety of windmills and the renewable technologies are especially important."

Last year delegates agreed that investable projects and pioneering funding solutions would be needed in order for Scotland’s dream of being a world leader in the field to become reality.

Scotland is planning to invest £140 billion on a variety of projects across the country, Europe’s most ambitious carbon reduction target.

Speaking about the country’s investment, First Minister Alex Salmond said: “We have some of the best natural resources in the world for harnessing clean, green energy from our wave, water and wind potential and we have a history of technology innovation and engineering expertise that is second to none.” 

The conference is part of the Scottish Low Carbon Investment (SLCI) project, a government-backed initiative which supports companies, develops clear business plans and seeks low carbon projects across Scotland. In addition, the project also aims to provide technological solutions in order to attract investment and create wealth. 

Head of Environmental Strategy at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) Dave Gorman described the young people of today as "hugely important" for future projects.

He believes that young people are the tools to new discoveries, and key to Scotland making their ambitious 2020 low carbon target of producing the equivalent of 100 per cent of the annual electricity consumption from renewables.

The conference also highlighted the wide range of green career opportunities available to young people and encouraged them to consider careers in sustainable energy.

Samantha Barber, non-executive director of Spanish company Iberdrola agreed: “It is the opportunity for young people to lead the change in direction that is required and to challenge the lifestyles and behaviour of other generations to live in a low carbon environment and to challenge the society we have of over consumption and non-sustainable life choices.

“We want future generations to have different behaviour – younger generations need to set out what the future looks like and be able to say that they were the ones that changed it and set out a sustainable lifestyle”.