Acorn CCS project at St Fergus should be priority urge north-east business leaders
Calls from business leaders in the north-east urging the UK Government to commit to the Acorn CCS project as “an immediate priority” have been welcomed.
In a letter to the Chancellor from signatories including chairman, Sir Ian Wood and CEO Maggie McGinlay of ETZ Ltd, Dr Liz Cameron, director and CEO of the Scottish Chamber of Commerce, and Sandy Begbie of Scottish Financial Enterprise, the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage Project at St Fergus is identified as Scotland’s only opportunity for industrial decarbonisation and as such urge the UK Government to commit to it in their Comprehensive Spending Review.
Aberdeenshire North and Moray East MP Seamus Logan said: “I am pleased to read this letter from major Scottish business leaders and hope it acts as a wake-up call to the Chancellor and the UK Government who have been dragging their heels on fully committing to support for the Acorn Project at St Fergus.
“As Dr Liz Cameron and others point out in this letter, opportunities to decarbonise the economy and create good jobs in the north-east of Scotland must be ‘fully realised’ as they have been in Teesside and Merseyside in England.
“Just last week in Parliament, I called on the UK Government to provide clarity and certainty on funding for this project which is long overdue.
“Positive noises of support without the cheques written are not much good - the Government need to respond urgently given what is at stake.
“According to a study by the Scottish Cluster highlighted in this letter, the economic impact of advancing Acorn CCS could be in the region of £17.7 billion to the UK economy, creating over 10,800 jobs during construction and 4700 operational roles in the long-term.
“The signatories also point to the Acorn Project as an integral part of Westminster’s Just Transition support, retaining the expertise of our oil and gas workers, creating new jobs and unlocking billions of pounds of investment.
“The knock-on effects for the economic prosperity of the north-east could be transformative, enabling further local projects like SSE’s plans for a new carbon capture power station at its Peterhead site with a generating capacity of up to 900MW.
“As I said in Parliament, commitment to this site is a no brainer for economic growth, and those at the top of Scottish Business agree – it’s now up to the UK Government to put its money where its mouth is and put an end to their prevarication.”
