THREE low-carbon engineering projects that could equip Scotland ‘for the 21st century and beyond’ are to be considered for investment by the Scottish Government.

Experts and members of the public picked the infrastructure projects as the most urgent to be taken forward from a list of ten proposed by environmental charity the Green Alliance.

The three involve city-wide low carbon transport for public and private vehicles; the introduction of Scandinavian-style heating into Scotland’s cities by building district heating networks – which supply heat or hot water from one source to a district or a group of buildings – and a retrofit programme that would upgrade Scotland’s buildings to make them more energy efficient.

“Scotland is on track to meet and exceed our world-leading target of a 42 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020,” said Scottish climate change minister Aileen McLeod, who announced the shortlisted projects.

“I am very impressed by the high quality of these short-listed projects that very much reflect the current policy focus of the Scottish Government, in particular with the designation of energy efficiency as an infrastructure priority.”

The projects were selected after a year-long initiative by the Low Carbon Infrastructure Taskforce, which was set up last year by partners including WWF Scotland, Oxfam, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation and Danish sustainable energy group Ramboll Energy.

Sara Thiam, Chair of Low Carbon Infrastructure Taskforce said: “I hope the Scottish Government will consider our shortlist and take it forward to ensure we grasp the benefits to our economy, environment and quality of life for the people of Scotland."