CLIMATE campaigners slammed the Scottish government’s green industrial strategy as “late and lightweight” within hours of its launch today.

SNP acting net zero secretary Gillian Martin announced the new policy, a year in the making, this week.

She said: “This will build further on Scotland’s strengths to generate growth in well-paid jobs and exports, to enable us to deliver on our Programme for Government priorities of high-quality public services, eradicating child poverty and protecting the planet.”

The strategy however did little to impress Scottish Labour’s Sarah Boyack who dismissed it as a “detail-light strategy consisting mostly of warm words.”

And Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Rosie Hampton said: “The green industrial strategy is late and lightweight.

“It’s lacking the ideas, policy, concrete timelines, or the investment needed.   

“The big idea is to turn the sea off Scotland into Europe’s carbon pollution dumping ground.” 

Adding the voice of organised labour to the chorus of disapproval, STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “This is yet another example of government strategy that talks up potential without matching it with the necessary policy.

“The strategy says that an active state is necessary for success, yet sets out a role for public bodies and local authorities limited to handcrafting Scotland’s natural resources for private investors and multinational companies.

“This approach to industrial strategy is outdated and has been abandoned by the USA and across the EU.

“International investment to build on the huge opportunities from Scotland’s wind, hydrogen and carbon capture potential is welcome if the terms are set clearly — jobs in our communities, trade union recognition and a fair share of the benefits across the country.

“This is being done all over the world and the Scottish government has the power to do far more.”