Labour’s big pitch to shift from fossil fuels to renewables risks leaving behind the people needed to keep powering the north-east economy, industry voices warn.
Leading figures reacted to UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s set-piece speech on energy in Edinburgh on Monday morning.
While the general ambition was welcomed, oil and gas workers heard their “declining asset” means transition to greener power is inevitable.
The choice of Leith as the venue for such a vital policy launch also led to criticism about Aberdeen being sidelined.
Base new energy HQ in Aberdeen
Calls are already being made to base Labour’s promised new headquarters for a publicly owned energy company, GB Energy, in the city.
The body would make available up to £600 million in funding for councils and up to £400 million in low-interest loans each year for communities.
Asked why he wasn’t making the case in the city famed as the oil and gas capital, Sir Keir deferred to his Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar.
“You’re right to make the point about Aberdeen,” Mr Sarwar said. “It’s also important to stress the oil and gas sector is not just important to Aberdeen.
“If you look at the supply chains, they go right across the whole of the UK, and jobs rely on that in every part of the UK.
“Where we are right now is a perfect example of that.
“The promise I want to make to colleagues in Aberdeen and the people who work in our oil and gas sector is this is a plan that is for you and we will work with you to deliver.
“This is not a plan that is bad for Aberdeen. I am confident it is good for Aberdeen, it’s good news for the north-east, for Scotland and every part of the UK.”
The overall ambition was backed by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce.
‘Not grounded in realities’
But policy director Ryan Crighton added: “It is completely overshadowed by a position on oil and gas which is not grounded in the realities of the energy transition and will drive away the very companies they want to partner with to make the UK a clean energy superpower.”
The chambers insists oil and gas must be a key part of energy beyond 2050.
Mr Crighton added: “We again urge Labour to work with us, with industry and with the unions, to make its energy strategy a prospectus for growth; a plan which will herald the beginning of a new era of global energy capital status for Scotland and the UK. That should include locating GB Energy in Aberdeen.”
Aberdeen-based business policy group True North also criticised energy security plans.
“An outright presumption against new North Sea licences will prove a huge deterrent to renewables investment and risks hastening decline before we have really put the foot to the pedal on accelerating green energy at scale,” added the group’s director Fergus Mutch.
In Leith, Sir Keir tried to reassure industrial groups but warned outright that the moment for “decisive action is now”.
He promises to cut bills and create jobs – saying 50,000 jobs could be created in Scotland alone.
“I’m not going to give you a moral sermon about the urgency of climate change, everyone gets that argument,” he told an audience at an industrial base in the Forth port.
“What I offer is a plan: a new course through stormy waters, a bridge to a better future.
“Let me say directly to those people in Scotland, nervous about the change this mission requires – I know the ghosts industrial change unearths.
“Deep down, we all know this has to happen eventually and that the only question is when.
“So, in all candour, the reality is this, the moment for decisive action is now.
“If we wait until North Sea oil and gas runs out, the opportunities this change can bring for Scotland and your community will pass us by, and that would be a historic mistake.”
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