Struan Stevenson | |
---|---|
Member of the European Parliament for Scotland | |
In office 10 June 1999 –2 July 2014 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Ian Duncan |
Personal details | |
Born | Ballantrae,Ayrshire,Scotland | 4 April 1948
Political party | Scottish Conservative |
Website | struanstevenson |
Struan John Stirton Stevenson (born 4 April 1948) is a Scottish politician. He was the Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 1999 to 2014 and chair and Vice Chair of the Committee on Fisheries,and was also a member of the Executive of the Scottish Conservative party. He was President of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq and President of the Friends of Free Iran Intergroup (FoFI).
Stevenson is President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) and Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change. [1] He is a columnist with The Herald and an international lecturer on human rights. He is CEO of Scottish Business UK (SBUK),a pro-Union business group. He was educated at the independent Strathallan School and the West of Scotland Agricultural College.
Stevenson attended the West of Scotland Agricultural College and initially managed his family farm before entering politics. His political career began in local councillor for 22 years, [2] sitting on South Ayrshire Council and its predecessor body the Kyle and Carrick District Council. He stood for election to Parliament at the 1987 election,the 1992 election and 1997 election. He was then elected to the European Parliament in 1999,and retained his seat in 2004 and 2009. He retired from the European Parliament at the elections in 2014. [3]
As an MEP,Stevenson led an international campaign to raise awareness and secure aid for the victims of radiation in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan,where the Soviet Union government tested 607 nuclear devices from 1949 to 1990,leaving an appalling legacy of pollution,deprivation,illness and death. He was awarded with an honorary doctorate in Science from the Semey State Medical Academy,State Medical Academy in Semipalatinsk in recognition of his efforts and on his third visit to Kazakhstan in 2003,he was made an honorary citizen of Semipalatinsk.[ citation needed ]
In September 2004 Stevenson won a $50,000 prize in an international essay competition sponsored by the US-based John Templeton Foundation for an essay entitled "Crying Forever" describing the suffering of the people of Semipalatinsk. Stevenson donated the entire $50,000 to Mercy Corps Scotland to assist with their work in Semipalatinsk.[ citation needed ]
In 2006 he published a book,also entitled Crying Forever,detailing his experiences in Kazakhstan. The book was launched at the UN Headquarters in New York and all proceeds from its sale were presented by Stevenson to the Children's Hospital in Semipalatinsk,totalling over $20,000. In January 2007 Stevenson was decorated by the President of Kazakhstan with the "Shapagat" ("Mercy") award for his humanitarian work in Semipalatinsk.[ citation needed ]
Stevenson also led a successful campaign for eight years in the European Parliament to impose an EU-wide ban on the import,export and trade in cat and dog fur. It was estimated that up to two million cats and dogs were being slaughtered each year in China alone,simply to meet demand for fur products in Europe. Working with Humane Society International,Stevenson's campaign generated more than a million emails and signatures on petitions,finally culminating in a draft regulation being prepared by the European Commission and voted through the European Parliament. The regulation was enacted into European Union law across all 27 Member States in 2008.[ citation needed ]
Stevenson was president of the European Parliament's Climate Change,Biodiversity &Sustainable Development Intergroup. He has been an outspoken critic of off-shore wind farms. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Stevenson has recently cited the loss of ocean carbon sinks due to offshore wind turbines as a possible reason not to build them,and outlined the pros and cons of wind turbines in his book,So Much Wind:The Myth of Green Energy. [9] [10] [11]
Stevenson was chairman of European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009–2014). [3] Since the foundation of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA),a non-governmental and non-profit organisation based in Brussels 4 April 2014,he has acted as its president. [12]
Stevenson's wife Pat is a former editor of BBC Radio Scotland. [13] [14] They have two sons and three grandsons. [15] [16] Stevenson comes from a family with historical ties,including a connection to Robert Louis Stevenson,the author of Treasure Island . [17]
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area. Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore.
Kimberley Joseph is a Canadian Australian actress who is based in the United States. Joseph was born in Canada, brought up on the Gold Coast in Australia and educated in Switzerland. After returning to Australia, she began a degree at Bond University but dropped out at the age of 19 when she was cast in the soap opera Paradise Beach. She had no formal acting training but appeared in the soap for the 18 months it was produced. After Paradise Beach ended, she had casual work on Hey Hey It's Saturday before co-hosting the popular Seven Network series Gladiators.
William John Graham Scott is a Scottish farmer and former Scottish Conservative politician. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Ayr from 2000 to 2021.
Ballantrae is a community in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. The name probably comes from the Scottish Gaelic Baile na Tràgha, meaning the 'town by the beach'. Ballantrae has a primary school. The beach consists of shingle and sand and offers views of Ailsa Craig, the Isle of Arran and Kintyre.
The United Kingdom is the best location for wind power in Europe and one of the best in the world. The combination of long coastline, shallow water and strong winds make offshore wind unusually effective.
The Thanet Wind Farm is an offshore wind farm 7 miles (11 km) off the coast of Thanet district in Kent, England. On commissioning it was the world's largest offshore wind farm. It has a nameplate capacity of 300 MW and it cost £780–900 million (US$1.2–1.4 billion). Thanet is one of fifteen Round 2 wind projects announced by the Crown Estate in January 2004 but the first to be developed. It was officially opened on 23 September 2010, when it overtook Horns Rev 2 as the biggest offshore wind farm in the world. It has since been overtaken by many others.
The production of renewable energy in Scotland is a topic that came to the fore in technical, economic, and political terms during the opening years of the 21st century. The natural resource base for renewable energy is high by European, and even global standards, with the most important potential sources being wind, wave, and tide. Renewables generate almost all of Scotland's electricity, mostly from the country's wind power.
Greater Gabbard is a 504 MW wind farm, built on sandbanks 23 kilometres (14 mi) off the coast of Suffolk in England at a cost of £1.5 billion. It was completed on 7 September 2012 with all of the Siemens SWT3.6–107 turbines connected. Developed as a joint venture between Airtricity and Fluor, it is now jointly owned by SSE Renewables and RWE.
Wind power generation capacity in India has significantly increased in recent years. As of 31 March 2024, the total installed wind power capacity was 45.887 gigawatts (GW). India has the fourth largest installed wind power capacity in the world. Wind power capacity is mainly spread across the southern, western, and northwestern states. The onshore wind power potential of India was assessed at 132 GW with minimum 32% CUF at 120 m above the local ground level (agl). Whereas, the estimated potential at minimum 25% CUF is 695 GW at 120 agl.
Wind power is the fastest-growing renewable energy technology in Scotland, with 11,482 megawatts (MW) of installed wind power capacity by Q1 2023. This included 9,316 MW from onshore wind in Scotland and 2,166 MW of offshore wind generators.
Whitelee Wind Farm is a windfarm on the Eaglesham moor in Scotland. The main visitor centre is located in East Renfrewshire, but the majority of turbines are located in East Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. It is the largest on-shore wind farm in the United Kingdom with 215 Siemens and Alstom wind turbines and a total capacity of 539 megawatts (MW), with the average of 2.5 MW per turbine. Whitelee was developed and is operated by ScottishPower Renewables, which is part of the Spanish company Iberdrola.
Neart Na Gaoithe is an offshore wind farm under construction in the outer Firth of Forth, 15.5 kilometres (9.6 mi) east of Fife Ness. It has a potential capacity of 450 MW. It is being developed by EDF Renewables and ESB. Offshore work began in 2020, with completion originally planned for 2023 but delayed due to supply chain challenges until 2024.
Walney Wind Farms are a group of offshore wind farms 9 miles (14 km) west of Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria, England, in the Irish Sea. The group, operated by Ørsted, consists of Walney Phase 1, Phase 2 and the Walney Extension. The extension has a capacity of 659 MW and it was the world's second largest offshore wind farm in 2018.
Teesside Wind Farm, or alternatively referred to as Redcar Wind Farm, is a 27 turbine 62 MW capacity offshore wind farm constructed just to the east of the mouth of the River Tees and 1.5 km north of Redcar off the North Yorkshire coast, in the North Sea, England.
The Beatrice Oil Field is a small oilfield consisting of 3 platforms located 24 km off the north east coast of Scotland. It began operations in 1980 with the field finally being decommissioned in 2017.
Ian James Duncan, Baron Duncan of Springbank is a Scottish politician serving as a deputy speaker in the House of Lords. A member of the Conservative Party, he was formerly Minister for Climate Change in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and minister in the Northern Ireland Office. He initially joined the UK Government as a Scotland Office minister following the 2017 UK general election. Duncan was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 2014 to 2017. He is the only minister to have served in each of the UK Government's territorial offices.
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The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), also known as the Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm is an offshore wind test and demonstration facility located around 3 kilometres off the east coast of Aberdeenshire, in the North Sea, Scotland. It was developed by the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre consortium. The scheme is relatively small - it consists of 11 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 93.2 megawatts. It is located between Blackdog and Bridge of Don near Aberdeen. First power was generated in July 2018, with full commissioning following in September 2018.
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Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd v Scotland [2015] UKSC 74 is a 2015 judgment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on the authority of the Scottish government to allow windfarm applications, under the Electricity Act 1989. It is relevant for UK enterprise law and the regulation of UK wind power.