SCOTLAND’S booming renewables sector is at risk if the UK Government persists with plans to take environmental protection powers coming from Brussels rather than hand them to Holyrood, the head of a leading environment charity has warned.

The green energy industry north of the Border has grown significantly in recent years, and now employs more than 20,000 people and delivers around £1 billion a year in investment. It is also a sector the Scottish Government wants to expand and which the SNP’s growth commission has emphasised is vital part to a new economic strategy for independence.

Currently, the UK is obliged to meet European Union targets on energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate change but after Brexit it will be up to Westminster to set any targets on the first two. A new set of targets will have to be agreed with the UN on climate change.

In its bid to boost the renewables sector the Scottish Government has set higher energy targets than both those set in Brussels and London.

The UK Conservative Government, in contrast, has adopted an energy policy based on promoting fracking and nuclear power and had slashed subsidies for renewables.

Last night Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, warned the Scottish Government’s ambitions for the green energy sector could be undermined if Westminster holds onto powers over renewable targets post-Brexit.

“Scotland has huge potential for power from the wind, waves and sun and we have been doing well at developing these industries. We have already set targets much higher than those for the UK as a whole, but already the lack of enthusiasm from down south is seeing major projects put on hold,” he said.

“Without the spur of European targets the UK Government control of the energy market mean they could stop Scotland’s renewable energy ambitions dead. Renewables are a big part of Scotland’s economic future and we need greater control over our own energy market if we are to deliver on our big ambitions.

“The Brexit process is an opportunity to take more control of energy policy for Scotland, but it will be a big fight to make sure it does not instead result in huge missed opportunities for our renewable energy industry.”

He added: “The UK Government’s blind obsession with fracking and nuclear reactors mean they must be rubbing their hands with glee at the idea of escaping from European obligations on renewable energy and climate change.”

Scotland’s potential for renewable energy is largely due to its geology and climate and the amount of electricity generated by renewables in the country has increased fourfold since 2000. Some 59 per cent of the gross annual consumption of electricity came from green energy sources in 2015, compared with 12 per cent in 2000, according to research by the House of Commons.

The Scottish Government wants the equivalent of 100 per cent of gross consumption to come through renewable sources in 2020 – and has met the interim target of 50 per cent by 2015.

In contrast the UK as whole is almost certain to miss its EU 2020 targets of producing 15 per cent of total energy from renewables.

A series of cuts to green energy subsidies have been implemented by the UK Government including closing the renewable obligations support scheme a year early. Trade body Scottish Renewables said removal of the initiative put £3 billion of investment and 5,400 jobs in Scotland at risk in the onshore sector.

In July 2015 then Chancellor George Osborne announced green energy producers would have to pay a climate change levy tax – costing the sector up to £1bn by 2020.

The row over devolved powers being repatriated from Brussels erupted last week when Nicola Sturgeon accused the UK Government of a “power grab”. She wants any areas falling under the Scottish Parliament’s devolved remits, including the environment, fishing and agriculture to head to Holyrood, but the Prime Minister wants responsibilities in these areas go and stay at Westminster to create UK-wide regulations underpinning a new a single UK market.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said ministers were determined to safeguard environmental advances made over recent years.

“The EU’s legally-binding renewable energy and energy efficiency targets have played a key role in the huge growth in the sector in Scotland, which has seen significant inward investment. The Scottish Government will continue to work with our friends and neighbours across Europe to fight climate change, protect the environment and build a prosperous, low carbon economy.”

A UK Government spokesman said: “As the Prime Minister has made clear, no decisions currently taken by the devolved administrations will be removed from them and we will use the opportunity of bringing decision making back to the UK to ensure that more decisions are devolved.

“We remain committed to our domestic statutory commitments under the Climate Change Act and our international engagements to tackle climate change.”