FUNDING for a carbon capture project in Aberdeenshire is expected to be announced tomorrow at the UK Government’s spending review, according to reports.
The Acorn Project based in St Fergus near Peterhead works with industrial, power, hydrogen, bioenergy and waste-to-energy businesses who wish to capture CO2 emissions and send them into permanent geological storage under the North Sea.
There have been growing calls for the project to receive funding.
Just last month, First Minister John Swinney pledged during his second Programme for Government that the Scottish Government would increase the amount of Scottish funding available if the UK Government backs it.
And in the Commons on Tuesday, UK energy minister Sarah Jones told MPs they did not have long to wait with Chancellor Rachel Reeves set to unveil the spending review tomorrow.
"We have always been clear that we support the Acorn project. We know what an important proposal it is. The decision is a matter for a spending review but we are very close to having those decisions,” Jones said.
Details on what exactly will be announced by the UK Government tomorrow are scarce but Scotland’s Energy Minister Gillian Martin (below) has said that she hopes movement on the project can now happen “at long last”.
“Scottish Government and industry have long pressured this (and previous) UK governments for the funding to realise the Acorn Carbon Capture project,” she said.
"I look forward to getting details and hope at long last we can get movement on this critical project."
SNP MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East Seamus Logan, meanwhile, said: “I cautiously welcome this long-overdue commitment that funding and full details will finally be announced for Scottish carbon capture at the spending review tomorrow, after years of campaigning by the SNP and the Scottish energy sector.”
He added: “England has been allocated £22 billion for carbon capture, so I would expect investment in Scotland to be at a commensurate level.
“After decades of broken promises, funding snubs and delays from Westminster - including over the past year - it is essential that adequate funding, full details and a concrete commitment to the project is now delivered by the UK government at pace - and the devil will be in the detail of the announcement, which we will study carefully.”
Not everyone is happy about the potential announcement, however.
Climate campaigners have said that Reeves should not offer any further handouts to the Acorn Project’s carbon capture “greenwashing” scheme in the spending review.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s climate campaigner Alex Lee said: “Rachel Reeves should not be spending supposedly scarce public money propping up a fossil fuel industry that is ripping us off. Carbon capture is little more than a greenwashing scam whose main success appears to be its lobbying operation."
Lee added: “The main beneficiaries of any more subsidy for Acorn will be wealthy oil giants like Shell and Harbour Energy who have shown they do not care about the climate crisis or their workforce in their ruthless pursuit of profit.
“The Acorn project is a fossil fuel polluters pipe dream and will never live up to the hype. Carbon capture technology has already had 50 years of failure so why is it getting such huge funding whilst working climate solutions that can improve people’s lives are crying out for investment and political support.”
