'Time to deliver': Ed Miliband reveals deadline for Scotland's crucial carbon capture approval

Ed Miliband has confirmed when a decision over whether to fund Scotland’s long-delayed carbon capture project will be made.

The Labour government has been told it is “time to deliver” a crucial long-delayed energy project for Scotland after Ed Miliband confirmed a decision will be made in the next three months.

The Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, to be based in Peterhead, missed out on the first round of funding by the previous Conservative UK government - much to the anger of North Sea energy chiefs and the SNP government at Holyrood.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband PIC: Justin Tallis/PA Wire

Speculation has mounted that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to wield the axe on the project’s potential financial future in her spending review - amid reports senior UK government figures have warned the Acorn site is among schemes now likely to get “short shrift” from the Treasury.

But UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has now confirmed that a decision over whether the Acorn project will be fully funded, as promised, will be made at the June spending review.

Read more: SNP warn over Labour's carbon capture and Grangemouth 'betrayal' as anger mounts

As well as the Acorn project allowing oil and gas to be burnt, in theory, without emitting carbon into the atmosphere - the project is also crucial to giving the Grangemouth industrial hub a clean and sustainable future.

Plans have been drawn up to connect the Acorn project to Grangemouth through existing oil and gas pipes as well as transportation by ship to prevent carbon entering the atmosphere from future industries at the hub, including hydrogen.

An update on Project Willow, the flagship strategy to safeguard the Grangemouth hub’s future, is due to be published imminently. Last month, The Scotsman revealed that Project Willow includes plans to harness trees, waste energy and offshore wind to turn the industrial site into a “low-carbon superpower”.

Read more: Inside Project Willow: How trees, waste and wind will transform Grangemouth

Pressed over when a decision on the Acorn project will finally be made, Mr Miliband has now confirmed that “the right place to make decisions for this...will be at the spending review in June.”

Speaking in the House of Commons, he added: “I support the Acorn project - it is a really, really important project.”

Read more: Labour vow over new North Sea oil licences as Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband poised for Rosebank clash

Business leaders including the CBI, Scottish Financial Enterprise and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce have written to the Chancellor, stressing the Acorn project must be treated as an “immediate priority”, warning that “there is no route for Scottish industry to decarbonise, threatening jobs and investment”.

SNP MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, Seamus Logan, said: “Ed Miliband stood up and said this is a matter for the spending review in June, but now is the time to deliver.

“If Scottish carbon capture is coming down the line then it should be confirmed at the spring statement next week, not delayed till June.”

SNP MP Seamus Logan | Michal Wachucik/PA Wire

He added: “Our energy sector is in dire need of certainty because the simple reality is if you want to deliver net zero, grow the economy and help safeguard energy security then there is no project better placed than the Scottish Acorn project.

“If the Labour government can’t invest in the most fundamental aspect of the just transition then any ambitions for net zero will remain a pipe dream.

“The days of warm words and rhetoric should have given way to firm financial commitment a long time ago so now it's imperative that Westminster gives the green light for Scottish carbon capture as quickly as possible."