Reply to Vic Thomas (Friends of the Earth)

Communities and individuals have both rights and responsibilities – enshrined in the UNECE Aarhus Convention – to demand the highest standards in environmental decision-making.

Where this does not happen, they must also have the right to affordable access to the courts to challenge decisions where their rights have been breached or an environmental law broken.

The urgency of climate change arguably gives developers and decision makers a greater burden of responsibility to get renewable energy developments and decisions right, and ensure that projects are appropriately and sensitively sited, in full consultation with communities.

Friends of the Earth Scotland believe that harnessing wind power is a vital part of our energy future. We also believe that communities and individuals should have affordable access to the courts to challenge poor decision making that impacts on the environment, and that is why we are campaigning for the Scottish government to comply with its international obligations under the Aarhus Convention.

In direct response to Vic Thomas’s request, we note that we do not have an in-house solicitor, therefore urge him to seek legal advice as to whether there is a case to be answered in this instance.

Mary Church
Campaigner,
Friends of the Earth Scotland.