Polling published today by RenewableUK reveals that most Scottish voters support building more renewable energy projects in the country to tackle climate change.
The survey found that 74% said they would think favourably of a political party which puts a strategy in place to do this, with only 6% against.
In the survey 70% of voters said that, in the last Holyrood election in 2021, they voted for a party they expected to build more renewable energy in Scotland, with only 3% believing the party they chose didn’t support renewables.
Well over half (60%) said they had voted for a party supporting onshore wind, with only 3% against.
Though a majority of voters for every political party were found to support new renewable development, support was particularly high among SNP voters, with 88% wanting more projects built in Scotland.
Around 74% of SNP voters said they had voted for a party supporting onshore wind in the last election, with just 1% against.
The Scottish Government is expected to make its final decisions on its Onshore Wind Policy Statement and future planning guidelines soon.
The polling found that 51% of Scots and 58% of SNP voters would be disappointed if the strategy failed to build the new onshore wind projects which Scotland needs to tackle climate change.
Despite this high level of public support, research by RenewableUK shows 4.8GW of new onshore wind is stuck in the planning system because the Scottish Government and local authorities have yet to decide whether to grant consent to these new projects.
Nearly half of this capacity (2GW) has been awaiting a decision for over three years.
Scotland currently has 8.65GW of onshore wind fully operational, so the projects awaiting determination represent more than double its current installed capacity.
RenewableUK chief executive Dan McGrail (pictured) said: “This polling demonstrates that voters in Scotland overwhelmingly support political parties which are pro-renewables and pro-onshore wind … We’re urging ministers in Holyrood to unblock the pipeline of much-needed new onshore wind capacity as a matter of urgency, by bringing in new guidelines which underpin the need to act fast against the climate emergency.”