Labour’s North Sea gamble is a sign they’re way behind the times - Lorna Slater
There are few things more depressing in politics than watching politicians who should know better, choose the easy answer over the right one.
So it was deeply disappointing, though sadly not surprising, to see both candidates for the Scottish Labour leadership backing new oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea.
Michael Marra and Joe Fagan have both thrown their support behind the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields, arguing that new extraction is necessary to protect jobs and our energy security. Joe Fagan has gone further, saying he will continue lobbying for new North Sea licences.
This is not a serious plan for Scotland’s future. It is an admission that Labour has no credible plan for the workers and communities who deserve a genuine just transition.
Nobody should doubt the contribution oil and gas workers have made to Scotland. Generations of highly skilled workers have powered our economy, often in difficult and dangerous conditions. They deserve our gratitude, but more importantly, they deserve a secure future.
The North Sea is a mature basin in decline. We cannot stop that geological reality by issuing more licences. The question is whether we allow that decline to happen chaotically, with workers and communities left behind, or whether we plan now for a transition into the industries of the future.
That means investing in offshore wind, tidal energy, manufacturing, decommissioning and the skills that will be needed to build Scotland’s clean energy economy.
Instead, Labour is offering yesterday’s jobs in yesterday’s industry as though the world has not changed.
There is an extraordinary contradiction here. Scotland has legally binding climate commitments and a target of reaching net zero by 2045. The Scottish Government itself recognises that unlimited fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with our climate ambitions and that the North Sea’s decline makes planning a just transition essential.
Yet Labour’s leadership candidates appear determined to pretend that more drilling is somehow a route to a cleaner future. It isn’t.
New oil and gas fields will not solve household energy bills. Oil is traded on international markets, so extracting more from the North Sea does not mean cheaper petrol or heating for Scottish families. Nor does it provide the long-term security that comes from generating our own clean, renewable electricity.
And every pound and every worker tied up in extending the fossil fuel economy is an opportunity that could instead be invested in the industries that Scotland will need for decades to come.
The Scottish Greens have consistently argued for a genuine just transition, one that puts workers and communities at its heart. We should be competing to create tens of thousands of well-paid, secure green jobs, not competing to see who can promise the oil industry another licence.
That is why the SNP must now make its position clear. They should rule out supporting new North Sea oil and gas developments and stand alongside the Scottish Greens in opposing Rosebank, Jackdaw and further expansion of fossil fuel extraction.
The future of Scotland’s energy industry is not under the seabed. It is in the skills of our workers, the strength of our communities and the enormous renewable energy resources around our shores.
We can either prepare for that future or pretend it isn’t coming. Labour appears to have chosen the latter, and Scotland deserves better.