CLIMATE campaigners Extinction Rebellion (XR) have called on the “international community” to reject plans for a space facility to be built in the Highlands.
This week the Space Hub Sutherland project submitted an application to Highland Council, seeking approval for the development of a rocket launch facility to take up more than 800 acres on the A’Mhoine Peninsula.
The area, known as the Flow Country, is Europe’s largest peat bog and stores around 400 million tonnes of carbon.
XR, who warn a spaceport – proposed by Highlands and Islands and Enterprise (HIE) and the UK Space Agency – would put the ecosystem at risk, has teamed up with local campaign group Protect the Mhoine to call on people around the world to respond to the planning application explaining why they reject the proposal.
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Kate Willis, XR Highlands and Islands, said the development is “contradictory” to the Scottish Government’s declaration of a climate emergency.
She went on: “Future generations need a planet that is habitable with functioning ecosystems.
“Continued investment in high carbon emitting developments is leading to rapid climate and ecological breakdown, which will not leave Scotland, or the planet, in a fit state for our children and grandchildren.”
HIE has said that Space Hub Sutherland will create 40 jobs at the spaceport itself and 400 in the surrounding area.
Comments can be submitted to the planning application, available at sutherlandspaceport.link/comment, until March 12.
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