As always in a twenty-first century election, commitments to green energy generation and ways of reducing energy waste are given top billing in most party manifestos.

The issue of the target for renewable energy generation is thorny, but one about which our politicians are willing to make audacious promises. Parties on the centre-left are all resoundingly keen to transform Scotland into an exporter of clean energy to the rest of the UK and Europe by using renewable sources for 80 to 100% of energy generation by 2020. Scotland’s suitability for a range of green energy options from wind turbines to tidal power stations is regularly touted, as are the many thousands of hypothetical jobs that these industries would bring to the country. Industry leaders, reports The Scotsman, remain utterly unconvinced. 

The question on voters' minds will be: is such a target feasible? Denmark, one of the greenest nations in the world, produced only 20% of its energy needs from wind turbines in 2008; in Scotland, 8% came from wind and wave power combined in the same year. Realistically, can the country make such a transition in the space of less than a decade? 

The Conservatives, meanwhile, are pushing for nuclear power to take a central place in Scotland’s energy industry, where the Lib Dems, SNP and the Greens remain fi rmly opposed. The Conservatives would allow proposals for new stations on existing sites to be considered, but with the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima plant in Japan forcing populations across the developed world to think thrice about the benefits of nuclear power, this campaign promise might come at exactly the wrong time. All the major parties appear dubious on the future of conventional fossil-fuel plants, preferring to highlight carbon capture and storage technology that will be an intrinsic aspect of the industry if they win the election (and if such technology becomes at all viable).

In concert with hopes to move to cleaner, greener energy, political parties want to get voters to engage with their hopes to make Scotland and its people more energy efficient. The Scottish Government is committed to cutting emissions by 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Top of the list of policies to achieve such targets are support for electric or fuel-efficient transport, both in the public sector and among consumers. Another issue that remains familiar to recipients of political promises is to make housing more energy efficient. Some policies also mirror closely those of the Westminster government, as well as its U-turns. The Conservatives recommend a Big Society-esque approach by which local councils are required to publish their own details of energy consumption and commit to their own targets to cutting it. Also, in response to the failed attempt to privatise forestry land by the coalition, promises abound to protect Scotland’s countryside and encourage afforestation, as well as encouraging the consumption of locally grown produce.

Other than an April that has seen an unprecedented amount of short and flip-flop wearing in the Meadows, Scotland has yet to experience drastic change in its climate. However, in the last decade the effects of rising water levels and temperatures have meted out an often tragic toll. Every party seems to want to transform Scotland into a blueprint for clean energy and green living, and if your vote on May 5th is going to be based on energy issues, then you have plenty of rosetinted visions of the future from which to choose. You have only to decide which party you trust sufficiently to carry out their promises