Some of you may have seen some misleading and plain wrong reports in the media that the RSPB has joined forces with Donald Trump to fight an offshore windfarm near Aberdeen.
The orginal Mail and Times articles even contained quotes attributed to Ian Francis, the RSPB area manager for north east Scotland, that he didn’t say!
So, here are a few facts.
1) The RSPB supports wind power
On and offshore wind are critical technologies if the UK is to deliver its commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with what we need to do to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. Climate change is already having serious impacts on wildlife (see this post), and we believe that if you’re serious about saving nature then you have to be serious about renewable energy. We will, however, object when proposals threaten to have unacceptable impacts, and, as a result, since 1990 we have objected to about 6% of windfarms we’ve dealt with.
2) The RSPB is not working with Donald Trump
In fact, we vehemently opposed Donald Trump’s development of a golf course on a protected area (a SSSI).
3) The RSPB is objecting to the Aberdeen bay offshore windfarm
This is because the application contained insufficient data to properly evaluate whether it would have an impact on a neighbouring protected area or not. However, we have indicated that we hope to be able to withdraw our objection should more data come forward.