Thread by @BlackIslePMD

A wee bit of a closer look at some of the #PFG content that's of personal interest to myself. All taken from the pdf version of the full document at this link. gov.scot/programme-for-…
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Hydrogen.
£6.9m for a scheme in Fife using Hydrogen for domestic heating. I'm a bit surprised about this one, as it's a strange choice for heating houses, but let's see.
Hydrogen Action Plan and Policy Statement promised by end of this year. I'll be keenly awaiting this one.

Hydrogen cont:
" invest in the establishment of a zero emission drivetrain
testing facility in 2021, with a focus on hydrogen
fuel cells to accelerate the development of these
vehicles." This is welcome, wonder where it will be located?

Marine Renewables:
In terms of looking ahead, no mention on wave or tidal at all, which is a bit disappointing. There is a wider "Blue Economy Action Plan" in the works, with integrated approach on seafood,tourism, energy, transport and science. No date provided for this plan.

Renewable Heat
This is a really strong focus - heat pump expert group forming next month, interim report in March, final recommendations next summer (new parliament).

Additionally, a new funding call of the £50 million Green Recovery Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) in September to support low carbon and renewable
heat projects in Scotland. This will be an interesting one - capital funding for demonstrator projects.

Offshore Wind - this is well underway in Scotland already, so perhaps not a surprise that it's not heavily referenced in this forward-looking plan - an updated "Offshore Wind Policy Statement" is promised at some point in the (undefined) future.

"Accelerate our work to consider a
range of possible permanent options to address
the challenges faced on the A83 at the Rest and
Be Thankful, with a dedicated parallel project team
now established to progress the environmental and
engineering assessment. (@mathcampbell )

Incidentally ^ that prior post is only one of two references to the word "engineer/engineering" in the entire 139 page report. For the the nation that produced Telford, Watt, Maxwell, Logie Baird etc that's just a wee bit of a shame in my (biased) view.

Other use: Collaboration with Scottish Forest and Timber Technologies Industry Leadership Group supporting research into timber engineering, increasing the understanding of timber as a building material among architects and supporting efforts to increase customer demand. 👍🪵🪓🌲

Farming waffle: "bring forward recommendations
for new mechanisms of agricultural support
that secure a productive sector better able to
contribute towards delivering Scotland’s climate
change outcomes and promote new employment
opportunities." no real substance on that one.

This is better though: "We will extend the work of the Scottish Land Matching Service to encourage uptake
of vacant and/or underutilised crofts by new
entrants" Keen to see actual implementation, but good intent.

Also interesting "Agricultural Transformation Fund to introduce a £10 million capital grant scheme that will enable
farmers and crofters to purchase equipment that
should assist in reducing their greenhouse gas
emissions, and support practice change. "

This is a new one on me: "establishment of a statutory national Nitrogen Balance Sheet, with a programme of stakeholder engagement expected to begin in Autumn 2020. This will enable a better understanding of the flow of nitrogen within the economy." sounds good.

Disappointing lack of capitalisation here - clear proof of central belt bias! (paging @DavidsonMagnus)

In all seriousness, very much a national plan - only three specific references to the Highlands, none for Orkney or Shetland, although they will be included in "£2 million Green Recovery Programme for our islands, opening in October 2020"

I couldn't be bothered condensing this text, so I'll screen cap it - interesting wee project on biodiversity, I need to go off and read up on "Miyawaki Mini Forests"..

Done - daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-m…
Pretty cool actually - small scale, rapidly growing urban/brownfield forests. Interested to see where these are piloted, but looks a good one.

I missed this "Vacant and Derelict Land" task force, so if anyone can clue me into its recommendations (which have been tentatively accepted for "consideration" here) I'd be keen to hear what they recommend. Hopefully something robust to get idle land/property into use...

All good stuff, highlighted section of interest to yourself perhaps @HiboWardere ?

I'm not a big fan of this one, and it will be interesting if it survives the flak it's taking from (literally) left, right and centre.

There's a bit of a disconnect here between the £4m on drugs and alcohol projects (which is certainly welcomed) and the *£500m* on walking/cycling/wheeling. Both important, but I'm not sure if the latter is 100x the former. I might be missing something elsewhere in the doc though,

@4c_Eng played there own little part in this wee para

Last one for now - really like the looks of this, keen to see what actual implementation looks like.

@threadreaderapp please unroll