Low Carbon in the Energy Sector

Scotland has an ambitious target to reduce its CO2 emissions by 42% by 2020.

The move to a low carbon economy will be characterised by the development of low carbon goods and services, and by high levels of business resource efficiency. These can both generate economic wealth and create jobs for Scotland.

Scotland’s low carbon goods and services sector includes:

  • Renewable energy
  • Water supply and wastewater treatment
  • Waste recovery and recycling
  • Environmental monitoring and instrumentation
  • Building technologies
  • Sustainable transport

The market value of the sector in Scotland is around £9 billion. The sector currently has around 4,000 companies employing 73,950 people. With the sector expected to grow to around £12 billion by 2016, low carbon employment in Scotland could increase to around 130,000.

However, this is still a challenging and high risk market for investment which requires policy and regulatory certainty.

Building technologies

Sales are projected to increase from £1.1 billion to around £1.9 billion in 2020. It is estimated that this sector alone could support 12,000 low carbon jobs in Scotland in areas like insulation and smart meter installation.

Water

The water supply and waste water sector has a market value in Scotland of £709 million and employs 6,200 people. Of this, engineering was worth £289 million and Scottish exports had a value of £94 million.

Waste

The UK market for waste management is expected to grow from £11 billion in 2008 to £14 bilion by 2014/15. Scotland has around 500 companies in waste management with the potential to generate a further 2,000 jobs.

Environmental Monitoring

Involves solutions for problems such as air, noise and marine pollution, land and water contamination, as well as activities such as environmental analysis and consultancy, and waste management and recycling.

Sustainable Transport

With a global market size of £904 billion, the sustainable transport sector presents a growing opportunity for the Scottish economy through electric vehicles and charging infrastructure and intelligent transport systems.