I read with interest the report by, among others, the United Nations Environment Protection Agency (UNEP) calling for urgent action to protect peatlands.
Coming on top of MidScotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser’s parliamentary motion demanding a halt to new windfarm developments pending a “whole new energy strategy”, and an earlier call by MEP Struan Stevenson for a moratorium on wind farm development on peatland, surely the time has come for the planning authorities of the Highland region and Moray Council to accord the whole of the peat-based River Findhorn watershed the same protection as the Cairngorm National Park.
In so far as the purpose of wind farms is to lower CO2 emissions, it is hard to reconcile the accumulation of six wind farms in the Findhorn/Dava Moor watershed – potentially up to 200 industrial-size turbines plus miles of access roads, bridges, pylons and sub-stations – with that goal, especially now that UNEP’s report confirms “the degradation of peatlands is a growing source of … greenhouse gas emissions”.
The Scottish Government does support a low-carbon economy: it should therefore put an immediate stop order on peat-based windfarms and concentrate instead on energy saving and emissions measures. – Yours etc,
JAMES STUART, Dunphail, Moray
12 March 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/03/12/goverment-supports-low-carbon-economy/