THE SNP have branded Labour as "clueless" in delivering net zero after a Scottish carbon capture project was snubbed in Labour's nearly £22 billion funding announcement.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn made the comments after it emerged the Scottish Acorn Carbon project was passed over for funding for the third time since 2015.
This is despite the Prime Minister saying there was a "unique opportunity" in Scotland for carbon capture at a press conference in Liverpool on Friday morning.
Projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production are predicted to be key in helping the UK meet climate goals
It is hoped the £22bn funding for two “carbon capture clusters” in Merseyside and Teesside, promised over the next 25 years, will create and support thousands of jobs and draw in private investment.
At the conference in Liverpool, Keir Starmer told reporters: "On carbon capture itself, I've been to see for myself some of the infrastructure that we've got in Scotland, the geology that we've got in Scotland.
"We've got a unique opportunity for carbon capture using literally the same pipes in Scotland, using the same infrastructure where fossil fuels came down the pipes, now they'll be used as it were in reverse.
"And of course what that means is that the skills that we have can be employed in the same place."
In 2021, the Acorn project, situated at St Fergus near Peterhead, was snubbed in the Track 1 stage of funding for carbon capture sites and was instead given "reserve status". This followed a previous funding snub in 2015, when the Tories withdrew £1bn from Peterhead despite promising the investment ahead of the 2014 independence referendum.
In July 2023, then prime minister Rishi Sunak visited the site and pledged support to the project, but no funding materialised. Now, the Scottish site has been passed over once again.
Flynn (below) said: “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."
The leader added that Labour "have lofty ambitions for net zero" but a "clumsy and clueless" approach.
Former first minister and Alba Party leader Alex Salmond said: “In the last 17 years successive Labour then Tory governments have committed to carbon capture projects in the north east of Scotland and then reneged on these commitments.
“They have promised support and then rolled back on Scottish carbon capture proposals since the Miller project at Peterhead in 2007.
"Today’s announcement is a betrayal of the north east of Scotland and we should now be extremely concerned at the lack of any earmarked funding for the Acorn project.
"The UK Government must urgently confirm if Scotland is set to miss out yet again due to a UK Government decision and if there will be any funding available to develop and deploy planet saving carbon capture technology in Scotland, with all of the jobs and investment that this would create."
