We want a clean, green Scotland, not a nation in thrall to fossil fuels

IT has never seemed a terribly sensible idea. Setting fire to coal under the sea is bound to cause climate pollution, and could lead to explosions, earthquakes and groundwater contamination.

Yet, there are still those who harbour the notion it might be good for Scotland. That’s one reason why underground coal gasification was originally left out of the Scottish Government’s moratorium on fracking, announced in January 2015.

A few days after the announcement, the Sunday Herald ran a front page story highlighting this “gaping loophole”. We pointed out that ministers did have powers to control UCG developments, despite claims to the contrary.

It wasn’t until nine months later, after campaigns by communities, environmentalists and SNP activists, that ministers decided to also impose a moratorium on UCG.

It was wise of ministers to appoint a respected independent expert, Professor Campbell Gemmell, to conduct a review. As we report today, he is now preparing his report, and has suggested he shares some of the concerns of environmentalists. He is still to make his recommendations but if we read the runes correctly, the prospects for UCG are not looking good. In our view, ruling out UCG would be sensible. It’s simply not rational to open a new fossil-fuel frontier when we know it will disrupt the climate, and evidence suggests it could be dangerous.

The focus has to be on cleaner, renewable and more environmentally friendly alternatives. Scotland’s future lies in the green technologies of the future, not the fuels of the past.

This is recognised in the Scottish Government’s promise today that it will abide by the European Union’s environmental laws, regardless of Brexit. That’s a sign that ministers are thinking in the right way about the nation’s future prosperity.

Another test will be what the Scottish Government eventually decides to do about fracking. That’s a tougher decision than UCG, not least because of the powerful pro-fracking lobby led by Ineos at Grangemouth.

Are fracking fields across the central belt an image of the nation that we want to be?

To prevent that, ministers will need to screw their courage to the sticking place. We wish them luck.