Environmental (Commonwealth Union)_ In a high point for Scotland‘s green energy proposals, Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves has lent her support to the St Fergus Acorn carbon capture project in Peterhead as the UK’s “next industrial revolution” hub. The development is a milestone for a long-postponed project, but concerns persist regarding clarity on funding and comparison to similar projects across the border.
Following years of campaigners’ and business leaders’ exasperation, the Acorn project has finally fallen into the Treasury’s line of sight. Reeves, launching her spending review in Westminster, revealed backing for the ambitious carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, stating that the state-owned Aberdeen-based GB Energy will lead the country into a low-carbon era.
“Today I can confirm backing for the Acorn project in Aberdeenshire, backing Scotland’s oil and gas to low-carbon technology transition,” said Reeves. “These are investments to ensure the towns and cities that fueled the last industrial revolution will have their role in our next.”
The Acorn project aims to remove carbon dioxide from industrial sources and transport it for storage beneath the North Sea in old oil and gas reservoirs. The technology is seen by most as a necessary tool in reaching climate goals without reverting existing energy infrastructure entirely,.
On a production basis, the scheme would inject £17.7 billion of GDP into the UK economy by 2050, create more than 10,800 construction jobs and sustain a second 4,700 long-term operational jobs, based on Acorn developers’ projections. The scheme has also been linked to proposals for a new gas-fired plant at Peterhead—raising hopes for energy job preservation in an area long considered synonymous with fossil fuel prosperity.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will join Aberdeenshire to offer more concrete information about government involvement and the type of future funding. However, critics argue that the Chancellor’s statement lacked the necessary financial and logistical details to fully reassure communities and stakeholders that Acorn is genuinely breaking its promises.
Glossing over was soon seized on by the Scottish National Party. Aberdeen South MP and Westminster leader of the SNP, Stephen Flynn, had guarded optimism along with sheer frustration.
While we are delighted to welcome this formal acknowledgement after all the campaigning, the stark omission from today’s statement was any indication of the quantum of funding or delivery timetables,” said Flynn. “That is compared to the £22 billion already allocated by the Labour government for similar carbon capture projects in England.”.
He also said, “Westminster has had 20 years now to get the Scottish carbon capture detail correct. It must provide substantive funding and tangible aid at pace.”
Russell Borthwick, chief executive of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, echoed the same, calling the announcement “a long overdue recognition of Acorn’s strategic importance to the UK’s energy transition.” The chamber had been one of several signatories to an open letter in March demanding overriding consent for the project, supported by leading energy industry players such as Sir Ian Wood.
But environmentalists are not convinced. Organizations like Friends of the Earth maintain that carbon capture technology perpetuates the fossil fuel industry it aims to displace. They argue that instead of serving as a solution, it may act more like a smokescreen that distracts from and diverts resources away from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
Whereas CCS promises to provide a stage for a smooth transition, its critics argue that in practice its record is uneven and that it risks prolonging the life of high-carbon industries.
However, its advocates retort that innovations like Acorn are necessary to cut carbon emissions in industries that are difficult to electrify, and to abandon such measures would be an economic and environmental mistake.
With its location in a site so rooted in the UK’s energy heritage, the Acorn project is today a testament to optimism and scrutiny. Whether it serves as a model of a cleaner, employment-generating industrial future or another chapter in a continuing narrative of lost opportunities will depend on the tempo, scale, and gravity of government response over the coming months.
