Former US vice-president to speak in Capital

FORMER US vice-president Al Gore will give the keynote speech at this year’s Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference.

The Nobel Prize-winning environmental activist and author of An Inconvenient Truth is expected to attract delegates from around the world to listen to his presentation at the conference tomorrow.

First Minister Alex Salmond will deliver the opening address at the two-day event at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre this morning.

The conference will look at what needs to be done to meet Scotland’s ambitious environmental targets, which include generating 80 per cent of the country’s electricity needs from renewable resources by 2020.

Other speakers include Lady Susan Rice, managing director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland, Andrew Cave, head of group sustainability at Royal Bank of Scotland , Sir Ian Wood, chairman of The Wood Group, Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy, Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer of Iberdrola, and Bob Hull, managing director of Ofgem. Tomorrow, following the conclusion of the conference, Mr Salmond will join Jorge Calvet, chief executive of wind-turbine firm Gamesa, for the official opening of the company’s new £14 million Research and Design Centre at Strathclyde Business Park.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is planning to stage a protest outside the conference today against RBS, which is one of the sponsors.