Question reference: S6W-13359
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 11 January 2023
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 January 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) support it has provided to and (b) recent engagement it has had with the Edinburgh-based renewables firm, Red Rock Power, and whether it will reconsider any relationship it has with the company in light of reports that it is linked to the endangerment of the world’s rarest ape, the Tapanuli orangutan, through the construction of the Batang Toru dam in Indonesia by its parent company, the Chinese state-owned, State Development and Investment Corporation.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not provided any funding support to Red Rock Power in relation to its offshore wind activities in Scotland. Officials last met with Red Rock Power in November 2022 to discuss progress on their development of the Inch Cape Offshore Wind farm off the coast of Angus.
Scottish Ministers are committed to protecting the natural environment which is demonstrated across a wide range of policy areas including biodiversity. A new global biodiversity framework was agreed at the UN CBD COP15 meeting in Montreal, in December 2022, with the aim of protecting and restoring biodiversity across the world. This framework includes a ‘whole of government’ approach – which we were successful in advocating for through the Edinburgh Process for biodiversity - and ‘whole of society’ approach.
We recognise the importance of biodiversity and the urgent need for action at all levels to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, to ensure a nature-positive world. In Scotland we will continue to work to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and reversing declines by 2045, through our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and Delivery Plan.