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Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur says the precautionary principle was really the only approach.

Mr McArthur says public policy needs to be guided by science and UK Committee on Climate Change has been consistent in its warnings.

He says renewables has to be the direction we are going in.

The Lib Dem MSP says the economic benefits have been overstated.

Mr Wheelhouse's announcement was welcomed by environmental groups, with Friends of the Earth Scotland and WWF Scotland both hailing a victory for campaigners.

WWF Scotland official Sam Gardner said it was "excellent news", saying "the climate science is clear" that fossil fuels should be "left in the ground".

Mary Church from Friends of the Earth Scotland said it was a "huge win for the anti-fracking movement" which would be "warmly welcomed across the country and around the world".

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However Ineos said the move could see "large numbers of Scottish workers leaving the country to find work".

Tom Pickering, operations director of Ineos Shale, said: "It is a sad day for those of us who believe in evidence-led decision making. The Scottish government has turned its back on a potential manufacturing and jobs renaissance and lessened Scottish academia's place in the world by ignoring its findings."

Ken Cronin of UK Onshore Oil and Gas also said it was a "poor decision", which ignored "extensive independent research" and was "based on dogma not evidence or geopolitical reality".

And the GMB Scotland trade union said the move was "mired in dishonesty" and "an abandonment of the national interest", saying Scotland would now be dependent on gas shipped in from "the likes of Qatar and Russia".

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• Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.
• The extensive use of fracking in the US, where it has revolutionised the energy industry, has prompted environmental concerns.
• The first is that fracking uses huge amounts of water that must be transported to the fracking site, at significant environmental cost.
• The second is the worry that potentially carcinogenic chemicals used may escape and contaminate groundwater around the fracking site.
• But the industry suggests fracking of shale gas could contribute significantly to the UK's future energy needs

Find out more....

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According to a British Geological Survey report published in 2014, there are "modest" shale reserves under east Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Midlothian, north Edinburgh, East Lothian and Fife - many of which include some of Scotland's largest towns.

There was estimated to be about 80 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in central Scotland compared to 1,300 trillion cubic feet in the north of England.

The report also said the amount of oil and gas which could be commercially recovered was likely to be substantially lower.

Ineos, which operates the huge Grangemouth petrochemical plant in central Scotland, holds fracking exploration licences across 700 square miles of the country.

The company has also started shipping shale gas ethane to Grangemouth from the US.

Its chairman, Jim Ratcliffe, has previously claimed a domestic shale gas industry could secure Scotland's energy supply in the future and revitalise the country's industrial heartlands, with Grangemouth becoming a "new Aberdeen".

But Prof John Underhill, an expert at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, published research in August which he said showed that the geology of the British Isles made large scale hydraulic fracking unviable.

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Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur says he is in no doubt Claudia Beamish's Member's Bill kept the government's feet to the fire on fracking.

Mr McArthur says scientific evidence throws down significant challenges should Scotland go down the fracking route.

The Lib Dem MSP calls on the minister to explain exactly what "social licence" might mean.

He says this should not detract from the case of banning fracking in Scotland.

Mr Ruskell says it is time to put in place a water tight ban on fracking with its basis in planning law.

The Green MSP pays tribute to all the campaigners and activists who have demanded the move.

He says: "This is our moment to ban fracking."