Labour is calling on the Scottish and UK Governments to work together to get a massive carbon capture scheme in the North East of Scotland up and running.
Ian Murray, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, is urging cooperation between Nicola Sturgeon's government and Westminster after the Acorn carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project in Aberdeenshire missed out on funding earlier this year.
It was not included in the UK’s initial attempt to bury polluting CO2 underground, instead it is a 'reserve cluster'.
The scheme, based at the St Fergus gas terminal, near Peterhead, plans to use pipelines to store CO2 under the North Sea.
Murray said: "What I would like to see is this £500m that the Scottish Government announced, with a lot of fanfare, in terms of just transition for the North Sea.
"I'd like to see a proportion of that now, in conjunction with the UK Government, put into the Acorn Project moving - for carbon capture and storage.
"It's the no brainer project. We have the skills and the infrastructure in the north-east. Take some of that £500m, part-fund with the UK Government, and get the Acorn Project to the top of the agenda."
Nicola Sturgeon wrote to Boris Johnson yesterday urging him to reverse the project decision.
The First Minister wrote: "We remain convinced that the Scottish Cluster can play a vital role in our just transition, and in reaching our respective net zero goals by 2045 and 2050.
“We have offered to collaborate with the UK Government in supporting the Cluster on several occasions, including offering the Treasury the option to deploy funding from our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF). We stand ready to deliver on this commitment despite no response to this offer having been received to date.”
Speaking to the Record at the COP26 conference in Glasgow Murray also weighed into the split between the SNP and the Scottish Greens on oil if Scotland becomes an independent country.
Net Zero secretary Michael Matheson said that some oil extraction would continue if Scots voted in favour of independence, while Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie insisted his party would oppose any new extraction.
Murray, the MP for Edinburgh South, said: "The Green Party is no longer the Green Party. It's the gardening arm of the SNP. It's all about independence for them, it's nothing to do with the environment.
"What COP tells us in Scotland of all places is that you have to work together with others to make these kinds of things happen.
"The entirety of an independent Scotland would be based on the oil price being $114 a barrel, it has been less than half recently till post pandemic.
"You just can't build your economy on that, even the Saudis are starting to diversify away from oil."
Murray also accused the Scottish Greens of losing "the plot" over the spat with Greenpeace.
Green MSP Ross Greer said earlier this week that Greenpeace "don't really understand Scotland", while Harvie said "Greenpeace - understandably - are more plugged in to UK politics, than Scottish politics".
The Labour MP said: "The Green Party has been captured by ideological nationalists and a lot of people in the party are apoplectic about where the party has gone.
"You're either the Green Party that cares about the environment or you're not. If you're diverted away from that then what's the point of the Green Party. They've lost the slot. The pull of the gas guzzling ministerial cars is more important than saving the planet."
A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said: “If anyone is qualified to talk about losing the plot, it’s Scottish Labour’s solitary MP. You’d think he’d welcome what the Greens have already brought to government: Free bus travel for young people, billions for warmer homes, Living wage guarantees on government contracts and a pay rise for social care staff.
“Meanwhile, Greenpeace and the Scottish Greens are absolutely united in believing there is no place for new oil and gas expansion. Labour’s position on oil, gas and nuclear is anyone’s guess.
“With Greens in government, Scotland is finally facing up to the reality that continual fossil fuel extraction, so-called ‘maximum economic recovery’, is incompatible with climate action.”
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