SNP’s Stephen Flynn has branded Labour “clueless” after they snubbed a vital Scottish scheme from a major £22billion investment in carbon capture technology.
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband announced the cash for two carbon capture sites in the north of England on Thursday. But Flynn said Labour was repeating Tory mistakes by failing to include the Scottish Acorn cluster project in Peterhead which aims to suck up polluting carbon from burning fossil fuels and pipe them into rock formations under the North Sea.
It follows repeated snubs by successive UK governments going back nearly a decade. Thursday’s announcement marks the third time since 2015 the Acorn project has missed out on hoped-for funding, the Nationalists said.
SNP Westminster leader Flynn said while carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) schemes in Merseyside and Teesside would benefit from the £22billion injection over the next 25 years, the Scottish cluster was left “hanging in the balance again”.
He hit out: “This really isn’t that hard – if you want economic growth, if you want to create jobs, if you want to develop a domestic supply chain, and if you want to hit net zero then you invest in the Acorn project. For years we’ve been waiting for the Tories to back this project.
“And despite offering ‘change’ the Labour Government have followed the same path by prioritising projects in the North of England, offering the Scottish cluster no certainty at all. We’ve seen with Grangemouth what happens when you don’t invest in the energy transition and, at this point, Labour look desperate to repeat those mistakes with their absurd tax changes and failure to invest in CCUS here in the North East.
“We know that Ed Miliband and the Labour Party have lofty ambitions for Net Zero but their clumsy and clueless approach to the North East indicates that they have no idea how to actually deliver on their aims.” The Scottish Acorn scheme was snubbed by the David Cameron Tory government in 2015 when it withdrew £1billion from the Peterhead scheme despite previously promising investment.
Then in 2021, the project – based at St Fergus gas terminal – missed out on the Track 1 stage of funding for carbon capture sites across the UK, instead given “reserve status”. A visit last summer by former PM Rishi Sunak promising billions in investment also failed to lead to new cash.
Miliband, PM Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have all touted the funding announcement as a landmark moment in the UK’s drive to net zero, saying it will help cut the nation’s emissions while preserving crucial North Sea jobs. Starmer hailed the investment in the “groundbreaking technology” he insisted would provide certainty to industry and “kickstart growth”.
But Lorna Slater of the Scottish Greens, which is sceptical of carbon capture, said: “Carbon capture is a costly and unproven technology that is often used to justify our continued reliance on fossil fuels. It is no substitute for clean, green and renewable energy and must not distract us from the investments that we need to be making and the green change that we need to deliver.” The UK Government was asked for comment.
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