Campaigners have slammed the Scottish Government after a Minister spoke at greenwashing conference in Edinburgh on Thursday despite climate protests.
The Minister for Climate Action Alasdair Allan gave a key address at the carbon capture event which campaigners say was ’full to the brim’ of big polluters.
Sponsors of the event included Shell, National Gas, and the Norwegian Energy Partners group which represents Rosebank oil field developer Equinor. Both Shell and Equinor have slashed their renewable energy commitments in recent months.
Attendees at the £400 a ticket ‘Decarb Scotland’ event at the John McIntyre Conference Centre in Pollock Halls Edinburgh faced protests due to its heavy promotion of unreliable carbon capture technology, which is being used to extend the life of fossil fuels.
A committee of MPs recently warned the UK Government’s £22billion subsidy for the industry will drive up household energy bills.
Campaigners are also questioning the appropriateness of the Minister attending an event sponsored by the controversial Peterhead Gas Carbon Capture project, when the Scottish Government is assessing a planning application for the project.
Last summer the Scottish Government was accused of repeatedly breaching the Ministerial Code in its mishandling of this planning application, including for attending the 2024 version of this event sponsored by the applicant.
Friends of the Earth Scotland oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said: “Ministers should not have endorsed this festival of greenwash, which was full to the brim of major polluters. Many of the companies involved in this event have doubled down on fossil fuel extraction and have slashed their climate promises, which were already woefully insufficient.
“Carbon capture is a con trick being pushed by fossil fuel giants who are using it to undermine a fair and fast transition and further endanger people by slowing climate action.
“The £22billion bung to carbon capture companies is being paid for by the public, with most of this handout added to our energy bills in the coming years.
“Greedy oil firms have already gotten so rich from exploiting our needs and now we’re all expected to pay to keep their climate-wrecking business going.
“The Scottish Government refuses to talk to anyone who is raising objections to the Peterhead gas burning plans but once again it is happy to be a key speaker at an event sponsored by the project it is supposed to be impartially assessing.
“Ministers ditched their climate targets last year, in part caused by their desperate overreliance on carbon capture technology but it seems like they have learned nothing from that experience and are ready to get fooled again.
“Our energy future must instead be built on affordable, reliable renewables that are run in the public interest.
“The skills and experience of workers must be at the heart of creating a credible and fair transition plan that creates secure green jobs, meets the needs of communities and scales up the industries we can truly rely on for the long term.”
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