Activists are setting up base at St Fittick’s Park in Aberdeen for a five-day climate change camp.
Climate change campaigners from across the country will be joined by trade unionists and community campaigners to highlight their priorities for a just transition.
The five-day camp will end with a rally and mass action targeting major polluters.
They have chosen to hold the camp in the oil capital of Europe following the UK Government’s approval for Shell to drill the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.
It is also taking place in the lead up to decisions being made on a new gas-fired power station at Peterhead and the proposed Energy Transition Zone in Aberdeen.
The latter has been criticised by campaigners for sacrificing St Fittick’s Park for industrial development – the only remaining green space in Torry.
Jessica Gaitán Johannesson, a spokeswoman for Climate Camp Scotland, said: “As the pressure mounts on companies and the UK Government to bring carbon emissions down, we need to be honest about their true priorities.
“These are not to save lives and livelihoods, but to hold on to power and wealth at all costs.
“Allowing the power over an energy transition to stay in the hands of fossil fuel executives will not only result in emissions continuing to rise – and increased climate catastrophe for all – it will also lead to worse suffering for those who did the least to cause climate collapse, in Aberdeen and around the world.
“What we all need is a redistribution of power and resources: a just transition led by the communities with the most to lose.”
In pictures: Climate Camp under construction
‘We need a truly just transition’
Friends of St Fittick’s Park member Scott Herret added: “I welcome Scotland’s climate camp, who share in the idea of putting people and planet first, unlike those who are proposing to destroy St Fittick’s Park and Doonies Farm for the sake of private profit.”
The main aims of the campaigners are for the government to cancel plans for new oil and gas fields, for Aberdeenshire Council to reject the power station plans, and to ensure communities have a say on how the Just Transition Fund is spent.
Guy Ingerson, co-convener of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Greens, said: “Aberdeen is on the frontline of the climate crisis. The emissions produced here have an impact across our planet.
“That means we have a special responsibility, not just to ourselves but to others, to transition away from fossil fuels.
“That’s why I welcome the Climate Camp coming to Aberdeen. I worked for nearly a decade in the oil and gas industry. The volatility in fossil fuel prices has seen us suffer a devastating price crash in 2015, with over a 100,000 jobs lost.
“Now that volatility is seeing our energy bills rise to eye-watering levels, causing a cost-of-living crisis. All while oil and gas executives enrich themselves will billions in profits. This cannot continue.
“I didn’t get involved in Green politics and activism to see my friends, family and co-workers get poorer. We need a truly just transition to more secure, sustainable industries. We need that transition now.”
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