KEIR Starmer faces a “critical test” of his commitment to a “just transition” in how his Government choses to respond to the threatened closure of Scotland’s last remaining oil refinery, a new report has said.
The Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission has today published a report on the future of the Grangemouth oil refinery, which is set to be turned into a fuel import hub, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
Members of the commission have also written to three UK Government Cabinet ministers urging them to come up with a plan to save jobs on the site.
The commission’s report said that “retention of jobs and the local skills base on an intergenerational basis” must be a core aim of any transition programme for Grangemouth.
Its five key messages are:
- The just transition plan for Grangemouth must earn the trust of workers and community
- The Grangemouth plan must be the first in a rapidly developed series of just transition plans for Scotland’s highest emitting sites
- A new intergenerational social contract is needed to safeguard young people and their community’s future
- Grangemouth needs a new economic model that goes well beyond the refinery, leveraged to deliver enduring community benefit
- The commission will publish an assessment of progress towards a credible program of just transition planning and delivery for Grangemouth in its annual report in the fourth quarter of 2024
The report said: “Five years of policymaking on this agenda has not developed sufficiently to require high carbon emitters to deliver a just transition as standard practice.
“The current path will not deliver. The limitations of collective efforts to date are nowhere more clearly in evidence than at Grangemouth, which presents an acute challenge for applying a just transition approach, given the central role of a privately owned company and foreign state-owned enterprise, and the associated difficulties in setting conditions and implementing effective mechanisms for open dialogue about the site’s future.”
It called for a rescue plan which sets out “specific metrics and indicators” measuring how well it is serving both the site itself and companies involved in its supply chain.
And it said that while the oil refinery was an important site and source of jobs, it “does not define the Grangemouth economy” and so state support must be conditional on ensuring that help for the refinery and its transition must also support “fair work, community benefit, equity stakes, profit-sharing mechanisms, environmental needs such as flood prevention”.
Deborah Long, chief officer at Scottish Environment Link and a commission member, said: “As a critical test for Scotland's just transition, Grangemouth is in danger of becoming an example of how to transition and leave communities and the local environment behind.
“We saw no clear plans for a planned and orderly transition. Instead, there is a danger that international companies will seek subsidies without conditionalities that ensure benefits accrue to local communities and protect the local environment.”
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband (below) has previously confirmed he will be co-chairing the Grangemouth Future Industry Board Leadership Forum.
In response to the commission’s report, he said: “The UK Government will leave no stone unturned in seeking a future for the Grangemouth site and its workers.
“We are committed to boosting growth through an industrial strategy, and to engaging with the workers and communities of Grangemouth and the Scottish Government.”
Miliband added that the UK and Scottish governments would be “immediately funding work to explore options for a sustainable future for the site”.
Speaking after a meeting between the UK and Scottish governments with representatives from PetroIneos, the site’s owner, Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said Grangemouth’s future was a “priority for this government”.
He added: “We are determined to ensure the long-term future of the Grangemouth site as part of our journey to clean energy by 2030.”
