Question reference: S6W-10304
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 15 August 2022
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 September 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what level of carbon production associated with energy generation it considers as low-carbon.
Answer
The Scottish Government considers renewable, nuclear, bioenergy and energy from waste generation technologies to be low carbon. This is consistent with the definition used by the UK Government (BEIS).Most generation technologies are classified as low carbon by their type, and there is no carbon threshold used to determine this classification. Lifecycle emissions are used to classify bioenergy as low carbon, because whilst bioenergy is not necessarily low emissions at the point of generation, it is low carbon over its lifecycle.
Although nuclear power is designated as low carbon we do not support the building of new nuclear fission plants in Scotland under current technologies. Nuclear has high costs and provides poor value for money. It brings serious waste and environmental risks, and has long lead in times.