LABOUR’S plans for what could be a key energy sector in Scotland have been branded “the Conservative playbook painted red” by a leading expert.
Professor Peter Styring, the co-founder of Carbon Capture Utilities International, told BBC Scotland on Sunday that there had been “no change” in governmental approach to his industry since Labour came to power.
Styring, a professor of chemical engineering at Sheffield University, was appearing on the BBC amid speculation that Labour could be set to increase employers’ National Insurance contributions in their first Budget.
Asked what impact that could have on small- and medium-sized renewables businesses like his, Styring said: “The potential increase in employers’ National Insurance contribution, that could have a real effect because we're a small business, as you say, but we've got the capacity to grow.
“If these increases do happen, then that might limit the amount that we can grow in the short term.”
He added: “To get this technology to really flourish in the market, we need the same sort of tax incentives as oil and gas companies have, as power companies have. We're looking for a level playing field really.”
On what kind of support companies like this might need, Styring said: “We need some sort of incentive to get us to invest in this country …
“I mean, these are really exciting times. We have a new technology which is different from what's happened in the past.
“The problem is, if you look at what's been proposed in CCUS (so carbon capture, utilisation, and storage), it's basically the Conservative playbook painted red. There's no change.”
“We need something new, and we need something that will happen now, not in 10 years time.”
He added: “If you look at the statements by Ed Miliband and Jonathan Reynolds, the chemicals sector is not mentioned. We see a great future in producing chemicals from the CO2 that we capture, and especially in Scotland.”
The Labour Government’s Global Investment Summit, held last week, saw CCUS investors including Eni, BP, and Equinor agree to provide £8bn in private investment for carbon capture clusters in the north of England.
Styring suggested that the technologies used in those clusters, and a similar proposed site at Peterhead in Scotland, were “too old”.
He said: “If you look at, for example, the Peterhead project that was cancelled in 2015, David Cameron said in parliament that the technology didn't work in this particular area.
“We need to stop making the same mistakes over and over again.”
Traditional CCUS methods primarily target large, stationary sources of emissions, such as power plants and refineries, while newer technologies offer greater flexibility. Styring’s Carbon Capture Utilities International offers a module system that can scale up or down and be used across a range of industries including oil and gas, rail, shipping, and manufacturing.
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. However, the Labour government has also pledged no funding for it, which the SNP have criticised.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said earlier this month: “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.”
