Warning SNP ‘dither and delay’ putting energy worker just transition at risk

SNP ministers have been urged to draw up transition plans for energy workers urgently to stop oil giants determining their fate.

Campaigners have accused SNP ministers of “dither and delay” over transitioning energy workers to green jobs and leaving their futures in the hands of oil and gas giants – amid fears promises made for a plan to clean up Mossmorran will be meaningless without action.

The fears come after the Scottish Government committed to a just transition plan for Mossmorran in Fife – but not until 2026. Mossmorran consists of two facilities, operated by Shell and ExxonMobil. Ministers had committed to do the same for the Grangemouth industrial cluster, but a promise to publish the blueprint by the spring has still not materialised.

The Fife Ethylene plant in Mossmorran, Fife. Picture: Jane Barlow

Concerns have emerged after Petroineos announced it was to close Scotland’s only oil refinery at Grangemouth, threatening hundreds of jobs, before a just transition plan was published.

Friends of the Earth Scotland just transition campaigner, Rosie Hampton, said: “The Scottish Government’s just transition plans so far haven’t been worth the paper they’re written so I suspect workers will take no reassurances from these announcements of future promises.

“Scottish ministers know that we must urgently phase out oil and gas and they must be willing to put the workers and communities most affected at the heart of this planning.”

She added: “But instead we have seen Ineos failing to engage properly with the Scottish Parliament inquiry into the future of Grangemouth or workers and unilaterally announcing the refinery closure last year.

ExxonMobil petrochemical plant at Mossmorran. (PIc: TSPL)

“The Scottish Government approach to transition planning has been dither, delay and leave decisions up to international energy companies who have shown time and again that they don't care about the impact of their decisions on either local people or our climate.”

SNP Climate Action Minister Gillian Martin, said: “The Scottish Government has committed to developing a just transition plan for the Mossmorran industrial complex, work will commence in early 2025. This will allow for a thorough evaluation of the approach taken at Grangemouth to maximise learning and outputs.

“We will follow the principles of co-design and include a wide range of appropriate stakeholders from the community, industry, workforce and public sector. The Scottish Government intends to publish the plan by the end of the parliament.”

Speaking in Glasgow on Friday, Labour leader Keir Starmer told Scotland on Sunday that if he forms the next UK government, it will not be “turning off the taps”, adding that energy jobs in Scotland “will be there for decades to come”.

The Grangemouth industrial hub.(Picture by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

He added: “There’s going to come a point where we’ve got to do the transition. What I don’t want to do is wait until that point until we do the preparation work because that will risk jobs in the future.

“We want to establish Great British Energy in Scotland and start the work on the next generation of jobs that will be there for decades and decades to come.

“I have etched across me the failures in relation to the transition from coal and the impact it had on communities and working people. I’ll never let that happen under a Labour government.”