In Summary

The Problem:

Scotland is undergoing a rapid and necessary transition to renewable energy, however this shift is happening without adequate strategic planning or consideration for the long-term impacts on landscapes, communities, and the environment. The focus is on increasing energy supply while neglecting the equally critical need to reduce energy demand—an issue that is becoming urgent with the accelerating energy requirements of AI and data storage. Development is driven by private interests, and poorly aligned with broader social and environmental goals, putting Scotland’s unique natural assets at risk.

The Solution:

The proposed solution is to develop a strategic, landscape-sensitive approach to energy infrastructure planning in Scotland—one that ensures developments are proportionate, appropriately sited, and deliver lasting benefits to communities and the environment. We propose a Policy and Campaigns Lead at APRS to develop policy, coordinate civil society efforts, engage with and support grass roots communities, and advocate for reforms that balance energy needs with environmental and social responsibility. 

Why is APRS the Organisation to lead this work?

APRS (Action to Protect Rural Scotland) is uniquely suited to lead this initiative due to our long-standing role in environmental advocacy and land-use planning in Scotland. APRS has consistently championed the integration of development, including energy, with landscape protection and community benefit. We also support a network of grass roots planning campaigners through widely used advice resources and webinars, and have seen a sharp increase in enquiries over impacts of energy infrastructure. Our expertise, trusted reputation, and established partnerships across the NGO sector make us ideally placed to advocate for a more strategic response to today’s energy transition, ensuring that Scotland’s renewable future is both just and sustainable.

Support Required

We are seeking just over £50K per year to support the project over a three year period (see budget below), which spans the key period over which UK Government are making decisions, the Scottish General Election 2026 and the huge increase in applications we are seeing for battery storage and hydro. If we do not raise the full amount we will carry out a reduced project with a part-time role. 

Introduction:

Climate change is the most serious and urgent threat we face. The impacts on Scotland’s landscapes are already visible: sea level rise, flooding, erosion, and changing ecosystems are reshaping both the natural environment and human infrastructure.

In the face of this crisis, energy is central to the solution. While switching to 100% renewable energy generation is essential, stabilising and managing energy demand is equally vital. The UK remains among the least energy-efficient nations in Europe, and economic models still promote excessive consumption and waste. This imbalance has led to policy focusing too heavily on increasing energy supply, while underemphasising the need to cut demand. With the rapid rise of AI and datacentres this issue is becoming existential – by 2035, researchers have found that electricity demand for data will exceed the entire energy production of the planet.

Our renewable energy, and our landscapes are two of Scotland’s most important assets. With fossil fuels we pursued low-cost energy at the expense of our environment, disregarding the externalities of that energy generation. There is a risk that we are, once again, creating energy infrastructure without taking sufficient regard to its environmental and social impacts.

A just and sustainable transition requires decisions that balance renewable development with landscape protection, community benefit, and long-term resilience. Strategic planning is now critical. Land is a finite and precious resource under growing pressure from competing demands—energy, food, housing, biodiversity, recreation, and carbon storage.  

APRS and Energy Infrastructure

Scotland is, today, undergoing an energy revolution. Just as the introduction of hydro-electric power in the 1930s transformed Highland landscapes and communities, today’s renewable energy transition—driven by wind, and a new wave of pump storage hydro—raises similar questions about landscape protection, community benefit, and strategic planning. 

APRS has long been at the heart of this debate. Since our first campaigns in the 1930s, and 40s we have consistently advocated the benefits of a planned and strategic approach, acknowledging the need for change and development while calling for the protection of Scotland’s natural beauty and rural communities. Our early work helped shape the Hydro-Electric Development (Scotland) Act of 1943, which nationalised hydro electricity and brought strategic oversight to serve both energy and social needs.

Today, we face similar challenges. Scotland is now a net exporter of energy, playing a vital role in decarbonising the UK’s electricity system. Yet, as with the early days of hydro, this transformation is marked by fragmented planning and competitive pressures among private developers, often with little regard for long-term impacts or local needs.

APRS support a network of grass roots campaigners working on campaigns related to planning policy. Our advice and guidance pages are accessed by hundreds of campaigners each year, and our two sets of webinars, the first on the new planning system, NPF4, and the second, on Biodiversity and Planning, have been viewed hundreds of times over the past year. Queries on energy infrastructure has become a growing proportion of our postbag and we have a volunteer project documenting the biodiversity and community impact of battery storage. The preliminary results of this project have been alarming, showing much of which is coming in on Green Belt sites, with very few refused, and three times as much capacity in the planning system as is projected to be required by 2035.

With growing pressure on Scotland’s landscapes, the need for informed, balanced policy and planning has never been greater. APRS, with its long collaborations across the NGO sector in Scotland, and focus on planning, land use and rural landscapes, is the right organisation to lead this work.

The project:

We believe communities and public-interest organisations must be involved early in the planning process, but more importantly, Scotland needs a strategic, landscape-sensitive approach to energy infrastructure, and land-use planning, that ensures developments are appropriately located, proportionate in scale, and designed to deliver lasting benefits.

This project will put in place a dedicated Policy and Campaigns Lead in APRS to work specifically on Energy policy, particularly wind, hydro, and battery storage. They will do analysis of existing policies and impacts on the ground, and bring together the NGOs and communities affected to use the combined weight of civil society to change the way things are currently done. We want to ensure that developments are in the right place and at the right scale, that mitigations are in place for impacts, and that benefits flow to communities and to the public purse.

The Policy and Campaigns Lead will work with our partner NGOs via Scottish Environment LINK, while also working with wider civil society engaged in climate campaigning, to deliver targeted policy interventions and campaigns to support them, drawing on evidence brought to us from grassroots groups. The aim is, over the three years of this post, to get a planned approach to energy infrastructure at all scales, from battery storage, to onshore wind and transmission and to bring together a powerful coalition for reducing the growth in energy demand.

Renewable energy is one of Scotland’s key natural resources and we should be able to benefit from it, without destroying our other natural resources, including our landscapes, and biodiversity. 

Why Now?

The work of bringing together the conservation organisations, communities and wider civil society engaged in climate campaigning is vital at this moment of potentially accelerating energy demand due to the needs of data storage and AI, and while the future of energy is a very live issue as Great British Energy is getting off the ground and infrastructure planning is underway. Community Councils in Highland have mobilised about over development and it is critical to link this with NGOs and a vision that deals with climate crisis while protecting communities and our landscapes.

About APRS 

Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) is Scotland’s countryside charity. We campaign to protect, enhance and promote Scotland’s countryside and rural landscapes for everyone’s benefit, and we support others to do the same. 

We are Scotland’s longest established environmental charity, founded in 1926 to protect Scotland’s world renowned landscapes and the amenity of the countryside. Our work relies upon a part-time Director, a part-time Administrator, one member of project staff and volunteers to do its work. With a small office in Edinburgh we have members throughout Scotland and beyond. We are funded by membership subscriptions, donations and grants from charitable foundations.

The quality of people’s surroundings is central to their well-being, and the quality of Scotland’s countryside is of fundamental importance even to those who spend most of their time in towns and cities. We campaign on national issues and support communities and individuals to look after and make the most of their local landscapes, and we believe that Scotland’s countryside has a key role to play in tackling the climate emergency, addressing the nature crisis and supporting rural recovery.

We believe it is time for a switch away entirely from the extractive mindset and recognise the human need for beauty, to ensure that our countryside and landscapes are, at least as, rich, beautiful and rewarding for future generations.  As we did in 1934, we “ask that beauty in nature shall be regarded as itself a great national asset, to be duly appraised as such.”

Find out more www.aprs.scot/about

Further reading:

Energy infrastructure: what we can learn from APRS History

Climate Change and our Countryside & Landscapes: a position statement

Project Budget:

Kat Jones, APRS – 29 July 2025