Concerns raised over funding for Acorn project at St Fergus
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MP David Duguid has criticised the Scottish Government for failing to release its promised £80 million funding for the Acorn CCUS project after receiving confirmation that it has the same powers as the UK Government for investing in carbon capture technology.
The Scottish Government revealed in December that “no budget provision has been provided for the financial year” on carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) despite pledging £80 million once the “Scottish cluster was given certainty of its due status”.
In July, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited St Fergus to announce that Acorn had been selected in Track 2 of the UK Government’s sequencing process to select four CCUS clusters to be operational in the UK by the end of this decade.
The UK Government has already invested more than £40 million to the Scottish Cluster and pledged almost £1 billion through its new Green Industries Growth Accelerator which will directly enhance projects such as Acorn.
And in last year’s Spring Budget, Chancellor MP Jeremy Hunt announced an additional £20 billion to fund CCUS across the UK over the next 20 years.
But more than two years on from its promise, the SNP Government has refused to release its funding and now will not allocate any further support to the development of carbon capture technology over the coming months.
At Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee, Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid quizzed the Scottish Funding Council on if there were “any barriers” preventing the SNP Government from releasing the funding.
In response, the body’s director of research and innovation, Helen Cross, said: “In terms of research and innovation, it’s a complicated landscape because it is part reserved and part devolved.
“For most activities, UK Government ministers and the Scottish Government have the same powers.
“In terms of being able to fund projects and programmes to advance research and innovation, they have the same powers.
“In general, the Scottish Government would have similar choices as the UK Government in how they would fund these projects.”
Afterwards, Mr Duguid, who welcomed the Prime Minister to the St Fergus Gas Terminal last summer, said: “This confirmation from the Scottish Funding Council reaffirms that the SNP Government is still trying to create grievance and division, leading to uncertainty for investors, for their own political purposes.
“The SNP has run out of excuses for not releasing the £80 million they promised for Acorn.
“In addition to the new offshore storage licences awarded last year resulting in a total of 240 million tonnes of storage capacity, the UK Government has already invested more than £40 million to the Scottish Cluster and pledged £1 billion to deliver four operational clusters by 2030 – not to mention the £20 billion for CCUS that was announced by the Chancellor last spring.
“While the SNP continue to talk down this fantastic project, I continue to engage with the industry and with UK Government ministers to make sure Acorn and CCUS more generally is brought forward at the soonest opportunity.”
