SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn demands clarity from UK Government on Acorn carbon capture project

The SNP’s Westminster leader has written to energy secretary Ed Miliband asking for clarity on the timescales for the funding of the Acorn carbon capture project in north east Scotland.

Stephen Flynn said a lack of certainty on funding and licensing is holding back the scheme, which is based at St Fergus near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.

The UK Government confirmed the project would progress to its “track two” stage last year.

The project is working with industrial, power, hydrogen, bioenergy and waste-to-energy businesses, including those in Peterhead; Grangemouth, near Falkirk; and Mossmorran, near Cowdenbeath, Fife; which wish to capture CO2 emissions and send them into permanent geological storage under the North Sea.

First Minister John Swinney visited the site earlier this week and pledged £2m in funding from the Scottish Government.

He said the UK Government must make “crucial decisions” about it.

Flynn said: “With seven prime ministers having now come and gone, we frustratingly remain in a position where there is no certainty over the timeline for licensing, nor the delivery of funding, for this crucial project.

“This is clearly a matter of profound urgency and in both industry, and the Scottish Government, the new UK Government has partners who are desperate to see this project grow and deliver.

“Carbon capture is an essential component of our journey to both net zero and the creation of new high-skilled jobs – and I will continue to seek both clarity and certainty from the new Secretary of State as we seek to deliver on these shared ambitions.”

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said carbon capture is key to the Government’s plans to make the UK a “clean energy superpower” and £1bn has been committed to its deployment.

A spokeswoman said: “We are taking immediate action to implement our plan for clean power by 2030, while continuing to develop cutting-edge technologies like carbon capture, usage and storage.

“This technology is vital to boost our energy independence and the Climate Change Committee describe it as a necessity, not an option, for reaching our climate goals.

“The initial cluster projects are nearing the first financial investment decisions this year, which are expected to create jobs and bring in billions of public and private investment into our industrial heartlands.”

However an environmental campaign group said politicians are wrong to put so much faith in carbon capture schemes.

Friends of the Earth Scotland just transition campaigner Rosie Hampton said: “Yet again politicians are pleading on behalf of rich fossil fuel polluters for more public money to be poured into the Acorn carbon capture project.

“Carbon capture has already had billions of pounds and decades of work to prove itself and it has failed on its promises everywhere it has been tried.

“Carbon capture is designed to greenwash the expansion of fossil fuels and the polluter’s pipe dream of Acorn project will never live up to its hype.”