Establishing a sustainable low carbon economy presents vast investment opportunities for Scotland's financial services industry, First Minister Alex Salmond said today.

Speaking at Aberdeen Asset Management's Conference, Mr Salmond said investment in renewable energy and low carbon projects would create real wealth and not asset inflation, which would benefit our economy and environment.

The low carbon economy is a global market, estimated to be worth £3tn in 2007-08 and forecast to grow to £4.3tn by 2015. An estimated 60,000 green jobs could be created by 2020 in low carbon industries and businesses across Scotland.

In the speech to leading figures in the financial assets management sector, the First Minister Alex Salmond said:

"Companies such as Aberdeen Asset Management have helped to establish Scotland as a global hub for financial services excellence with the people and infrastructure to deliver success.

"Scotland has an outstanding reputation for financial innovation and significant opportunities lie ahead from harnessing investment from developing economies such as China to encourage sustainable economic growth through infrastructure creation, not asset inflation.

"Creating a sustainable low carbon economy and tackling the global climate change challenge presents enormous opportunities. The financial industry can deliver real gains for their investors and our environment by funding the renewables revolution and financing low carbon developments.”

Be ahead in investing in the green economy by attending Holyrood magazine’s ‘Environmental and Clean Technologies: Scotland’s Green Technology Revolution’ conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday 26 October. For more information and bookings visit: http://greenrevolution.holyrood.com/