SNP should stop going on about fuel poverty and build some nuclear reactors

Alan Brown of the SNP (Perspective, 17 July) should understand that the weather is not going to provide the power Scotland will need as an independent nation,and being carbon neutral will take Scotland back to the 18th century, when everything was “renewable” as the bulk of the population worked on the land, industry was undeveloped, and motor and air travel had yet to be invented. The good old days? I don’t think so, but that is what he is suggesting.

It is also ridiculous that having invented nuclear power, the UK is becoming dependent on wind and sun and wood burning to provide its energy needs.

A sensible approach for the SNP would be to build a couple of nuclear reactors – which are carbon neutral, by the way – and be done with their nonsense talk about fuel poverty and people having to choose between eating and heating.

This is the 21st century, not the middle ages.

MALCOLM PARKIN Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross

Alan Brown MSP’S complaints that Scotland’s climate goals are being frustrated by the UK government’s policies on reducing subsidies for wind turbines fatally lacks a sense of proportion.

Were Scotland to close down CO2 emissions from industry and take all realistic measures to reduce greenhouse gas output, the effect on the world’s, or our own climate changes, would so small as to be unmeasurable.

Proportionately our CO2 release, at 0.13 per cent of the world’s total, is negligible.

UK decarbonisation, hugely costly, is mere token virtue signalling, an example which would never be noticed, let alone followed, by China, the USA, India, Russia and many more nations non-compliant in international attempts to curb carbon. These countries put out well over half of the world’s greenhouse gases.

Does Mr Brown acknowledge, or is he even aware of, these vital spoilers of his arguments ? Scottish Nationalists often complain about jibes that Scotland is “too wee and too poor” to make a success of independence.

In reality, from consideration of practical politics and economics, Scotland IS too wee and too poor to make a useful contribution to fighting world climate change.

CHARLES WARDROP Viewlands Road West, Perth