Fergus Ewing: Renewables will let Scotland lead on climate change

The Scottish Government firmly believes that renewable energy is the right choice for Scotland. The sector brings tremendous opportunities for economic growth and builds on Scotland's existing skills and strengths in the fields of innovation, energy and engineering. Generating the equivalent of 100 per cent of our demand from renewable energy is achievable and will make Scotland a world leader in clean, green energy.

By harnessing just a third of our offshore renewable energy potential, we could meet Scotland's electricity needs seven times over by 2050. The net value of this amount of energy, in terms of electricity sales, would be 14 billion by 2050.

The large-scale development of offshore wind represents the biggest opportunity for sustainable economic growth in Scotland for a generation, potentially supporting up to 28,000 directly related jobs and a further 20,000 indirect jobs and generating up to 7bn for the Scottish economy by 2020.

Just as Brian Wilson's article appeared, the First Minister was unveiling Aquamarine Power's next-generation Oyster 800 wave-energy device, representing a new surge towards commercially competitive wave power. This illustrates that the benefits of the reindustrialisation of Scotland as a result of the renewables industry are not confined to the Central Belt.

This project has helped to sustain 120 jobs, including skilled steel rolling, at the Arnish yard in the Western Isles. Scotland is not working alone on this issue and the UK government has acknowledged that it needs Scottish renewable energy to meet its own targets.

This government wants to seize the opportunities offered by renewables and make the most of them to build a Scotland that is at the forefront of international action and is leading the world in establishing targets to tackle climate change.

• Fergus Ewing is minister for energy, enterprise and tourism.