Scottish election fevers scatters cash at greenery

摘要

The ending of the current session of the Scottish Parliament, at the end of March, and the start of election campaigning for MSPs provided the perfect backdrop for ministers on the Scottish Executive to demonstrate their green credentials ahead of the election on May 3. As ever, the Executive finds itself awash with funds and unspent budgets that need distributing ahead of the election, so its leaders are off in pursuit of headlines. With parties competing to show how green they can be, the reigning Labour and Libdem coalition has had one last chance to show they support environmental initiatives, before they begin to campaign separately for seats in the new Parliament. Consequently, 74 biomass projects have had windfalls from a 10.5m pounds fund. Together, these are expected to save a total of 37,000t of carbon dioxide each year. That's a massive 283 pounds for each annual tonne of CO_2, when the price of emissions under the EU emissions trading scheme is currently less than 1 euros/t of CO_2.