Devastating Grangemouth closure shows why Scotland must make net-zero work

Grangemouth's oil refinery is set to close with the loss of 400 jobs (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

Confirmation that the Grangemouth oil refinery is to close has united Scotland’s politicians, on the left and right, in lamentation. “Deeply disappointing,” said Labour’s Ed Miliband; “a heart-breaking, hammer blow,” said Roz Foyer of the STUC; a “significant economic shock,” said John Swinney; “a devastating blow,” said the Scottish Conservatives’ Douglas Ross.

The loss of Scotland’s only oil refinery – and with it 400 jobs, plus many more that it supported in the local community – will be a moment as significant as many of the great industrial closures of the past. Both the UK and Scottish governments are scrambling to come up with ways to create new, low-carbon jobs at the site – committing £100 million to the task – but their efforts may come too late for some.

In 2022, the Scottish Government had said it would publish a just transition plan for Grangemouth but, like other SNP pledges, it has taken far too long to deliver and is not due to be completed until the end of this year.

In contrast, the new Labour government has shown a welcome sense of urgency. One of its first acts was to speak to the SNP government about the situation at Grangemouth and the jointly funded Project Willow has since identified potential replacements for the refinery: producing low-carbon hydrogen, clean eFuels, and sustainable aviation fuels.

Grangemouth's oil refinery is set to close with the loss of 400 jobs (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

Explaining the closure decision, Frank Demay, of Petroineos Refining, said the demand for fuels produced at Grangemouth was already declining and the switch to electric vehicles would see it continue to fall. That, coupled with the cost of “maintaining a refinery built half a century ago”, had forced their hand.

The loss of Grangemouth’s refinery is bad enough, but there will be more such closures to come with North Sea oil and gas production falling rapidly since a peak in 1999. The drive to net-zero, therefore, is an opportunity, not a threat – a chance to create new jobs to replace those being lost.

United in lamentation today, politicians of all parties must commit to work constructively together to ensure Scotland is able to prosper from the green industrial revolution. Failure to do so risks our ruin.