Hull wins renewables jobs amid disappointment for Scotland

First minister John Swinney said recently that CCUS could play a major role in Scotland's net zero future given the vast storage potential offered by former North Sea fields and opportunities to repurpose oil and gas infrastructure.

In the Green Industrial Strategy published in September Mr Swinney's cabinet identified carbon capture as one of five key areas in which Scotland was well placed to develop "internationally competitive clusters".

However, Mr Sheppard told campaigners that carbon capture plans were based on unproven technology and were simply an excuse to keep burning oil and gas in unsustainable quantities.

He made the claim as ScottishPower awarded a £1bn contract for the manufacture of windfarm blades to a plant in Hull.

READ MORE: SNP Government green jobs failure seen in English city's success

The contract will help support 1,300 jobs at the plant, which is helping to power growth in an area hit  hard by the decline of the fishing industry.

Scotland has nothing comparable although former first minister Alex Salmond said the country would become the Saudi Arabia of the renewables industry. Successors repeated the claim that thousands of clean energy jobs were in the pipeline.

Mr Sheppard became MP for Edinburgh East after serving as a "major figure in the 2014 yes campaign" according to his web site.

He lost his seat to Labour's Chris Murray in the general election after the SNP's share of the constituency vote plunged.

Admitting he didn't get out much any more following the vote, Mr Sheppard was back in the limelight as a panel member at an Edinburgh event to support the campaign to block the development of the giant Rosebank oil field off Shetland.

Campaigners opposed to the Rosebank oil field development outside the Court of Session in Edinburgh (Image: © Robert Ormerod / Greenpeace)

The Stop Rosebank event was held the day before the Court of Session in Edinburgh began hearing a legal challenge to the former Conservative Government's decision to approve Rosebank.

READ MORE: Rosebank oil field plan wins backing from giant after tax hike

Mr Sheppard gave enthusiastic backing to the action which was launched by Greenpeace and Uplift amid claims that use of the oil held in Rosebank would result in disastrous emissions.

He said the start of the action marked a landmark victory in a campaign against the "existential threat" posed by Rosebank.

"The people who should be put in the dock are vested interests in the oil and gas industry," he thundered.

Mr Sheppard conceded that the rise of Scotland's oil and gas industry had provided a big boost for the independence campaign. However, insisting that Scotland needed to move to a system powered totally by renewables he claimed the vast majority of SNP members are now "very much in favour" of ending oil and gas production.

The comedy business entrepreneur denounced oil and gas companies that are backing plans to develop CCUS schemes off Scotland, including Shell. Such plans would simply allow them to produce more at the expense of the climate, claimed Mr Sheppard.

He suggested the poor would be the victims of CCUS developments then went on to note the threat posed by the deindustrialisation likely to result as oil and gas production winds down.

READ MORE: Green energy output slump poses challenge for Scottish Government

Against that backdrop, Mr Sheppard said Scotland needed to achieve a just transition to an oil and gas free future but could not trust corporations to support one. That meant Scotland needed to achieve independence to be able to raise the funding required.

But the Scottish Government does not seem to have been deterred from making big policy announcements by a lack of resources.

Mr Sheppard made no mention of Mr Swinney's enthusiasm for carbon capture and storage projects which are set to benefit from generous UK Government support.

He also kept silent about the £500m Just Transition Fund that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon launched in 2021. 

The fund was seen as a sop to independence supporters who may have been angry about Ms Sturgeon's decision to turn against the oil and gas industry as she courted the green vote.

In March a cross-party committee of MSPs expressed serious concerns about the lack of progress made since the fund's launch. "Clear plans and coherent cross-Government actions are now needed to realise and deliver on the high-level ambitions," said the committee.

Mr Sheppard did not refer to the £500m offshore wind supply chain fund launched by Ms Sturgeon's successor Humza Yousaf last year. Mr Yousaf did not explain then why SNP Governments had failed to come up with such a scheme previously. 

The number of jobs created in Scotland's renewables industry has fallen well short of ministers' expectations.

However, Mr Swinney's administration has kept MSPs waiting months for the release of the final version of the energy strategy that was published in draft form in January last year following long delays. The draft recommended a presumption against oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.

READ MORE: North Sea pioneer parts company with chief executive amid oil industry upheaval

The final version was meant to be published alongside an updated just transition plan in summer this year.

Energy minister Gillian Martin said last week she hoped the strategy would be published before the end of 2024. It has yet to be considered by Mr Swinney's cabinet.

The day of the Stop Rosebank event ScottishPower rubbed salt into the SNP Government's wounds.

The Glasgow-based energy giant announced it had placed a £1bn order for windfarm turbine blades with Siemens Gamesa's Hull plant. It noted the plant provides 1,300 local jobs including 600 created in the last year.

The Hull factory could produce blades for future Scottish windfarm developments.

Scotland has failed to develop turbine manufacturing operations on the scale required to compete in global markets.

SSE supported a plan to develop a turbine tower production plant on the Cromarty Firth but that seems to have run out of steam.

Last week SSE posted a £714 million first half profit, up 26% from £565m in the same period of 2023.

The Perth-based group said highlights included it winning financial support for the Cloiche windfarm in the Highlands under the UK Government's contracts for difference programme.

READ MORE: Scottish wind energy drive faces hit from Labour Government move

Meanwhile Equinor repeated claims that the development of Rosebank would support thousands of jobs.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard claims the UK Government was wrong to approve Rosebank because it failed to consider the impact of the emissions that would result from use of the oil and gas it contains.

Equinor and its partner in the development, Ithaca Energy, have noted they complied with regulations in place at the time and underlined their belief the development would be good the the economy and energy security in the UK.

Humza Yousaf last year criticised the decision to approve Rosebank.

As countries squabbled at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan last week the Scottish Goverment showed it remained happy to devote public servants' energy to the development of virtue-signalling policies.

Ms Martin said Scotland would provide £40,000 funding for an initiative to promote "Just Resilience". This refers to helping poor countries that have done little to cause climate change to prepare for it.

True to SNP Government form, Ms Martin claimed the move was significant in a global context.

She claimed the project represented an opportunity for the Scottish Government to "lead on an emerging field of climate action" in a way that was in line with its climate justice principles.