SCOTLAND is missing out on job opportunities in the low-carbon and renewable energy sector, the Scottish TUC warned after Extinction Rebellion blockaded Edinburgh’s North Bridge.

A report published by the union confederation today castigates the Scottish government for past promises of up to 130,000 jobs in the sector by 2020.

But current figures show there are just 46,400 employees in such jobs.

The report, titled Broken Promises and Offshored Jobs, blames a reliance on multinational companies, financial interests and imported goods and services.

It calls for a greater focus on public ownership and an industrial strategy to build a manufacturing base that ensures workers in Scotland will benefit.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said: “Reducing carbon emissions in Scotland will involve hard choices and the trade union movement is where these hard choices have to be resolved.

“Carbon reduction will only come from economic and social change on a massive scale. Work will be transformed and that comes with uncertainty and risk.

“Protests in France demonstrate that attempts to place the burden on workers comes with serious consequences and the Scottish government must know that it is not immune to these risks.”

In Edinburgh yesterday, the direct action group Extinction Rebellion organised a “critical mass” bike ride at 2pm before a full blockade of North Bridge an hour later.

The group said it would let through emergency service vehicles.

One protester, former GP Richard Dyer, said: “I am not advocating violence [but] we have to do all we can to bring this serious problem to the attention of the world and if that means that I run the risk of being arrested and fined then so be it.”

At STUC congress today delegates will be addressed by school-age climate strikers.

Meanwhile a gilet jaune protester from France will warn about the dangers of inequitable action such as fuel taxes on the poor.

Salome Saque, a journalist who has covered the protests against President Macron’s tax reforms, said: “Macron’s folly was to believe that he could place the burden of carbon reduction on the poor, the workers and the dispossessed of France who have risen up and are currently forcing the government to think again.”