>An “exodus” from the Highlands and Islands is brewing after Nicola Sturgeon vowed to oppose new oil and gas activities, critics have claimed.
Jamie Halcro Johnston, a Scottish Conservative MSP, condemned the SNP and its Green Party coalition partner for not making “any plan for all those they intend to make jobless”.
Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader, also said that Sturgeon’s decision to oppose the Cambo oil field off Shetland to help curb climate change is a blow to independence. He said the move was comparable to Margaret Thatcher’s abandonment of coal-mining communities and would lose the party thousands of votes in the northeast.
>Sturgeon came out against the development of the 600 million-barrel field, 75 miles west of Shetland, after the Cop26 environment talks in Glasgow.
>Halcro Johnston, an MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said: “These comments from Nicola Sturgeon will have cast a chill in many households across the Highlands and Islands, whose family income is derived from employment in oil and gas,” he said. “The Scottish government’s own development agency, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, states quite clearly: ‘The industry is a significant contributor to the economy of the Highlands and Islands creating flexible, high value employment for thousands of people.’
“And yet Nicola Sturgeon, at the urging of her Green coalition partners, is more than prepared to throw the entire sector under a bus.”
He described the position as “self-defeating” because capping domestic production would mean importing more oil from countries such as Russia.
>Halcro Johnston added: “It’s clear that we require a transition plan as we move from fossil fuels but it must be on a realistic time scale, take account of continuing demand for oil and gas, and ensure that there are comparable jobs available. The alternative is unthinkable: the loss of many of our most productive wage-earners and an exodus to other parts of the world as they seek to provide for their families.”
Sturgeon had previously urged the UK government to reassess the plans as concern grows over the effect of fossil fuels on climate change. Last week she said new oil and gas extraction could not continue for ever.
“And I don’t think we can go and continue to give the go-ahead to new oil fields. So I don’t think that Cambo should get the green light,” she said.
Mark Ruskell the Scottish Greens’ climate spokesman welcomed the announcement. However, the industry body Oil and Gas UK said that without Cambo Britain would need to import oil and gas from other countries, giving it a bigger carbon footprint.
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>An “exodus” from the Highlands and Islands is brewing after Nicola Sturgeon vowed to oppose new oil and gas activities, critics have claimed.
Jamie Halcro Johnston, a Scottish Conservative MSP, condemned the SNP and its Green Party coalition partner for not making “any plan for all those they intend to make jobless”.
Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader, also said that Sturgeon’s decision to oppose the Cambo oil field off Shetland to help curb climate change is a blow to independence. He said the move was comparable to Margaret Thatcher’s abandonment of coal-mining communities and would lose the party thousands of votes in the northeast.
>Sturgeon came out against the development of the 600 million-barrel field, 75 miles west of Shetland, after the Cop26 environment talks in Glasgow.
>Halcro Johnston, an MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said: “These comments from Nicola Sturgeon will have cast a chill in many households across the Highlands and Islands, whose family income is derived from employment in oil and gas,” he said. “The Scottish government’s own development agency, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, states quite clearly: ‘The industry is a significant contributor to the economy of the Highlands and Islands creating flexible, high value employment for thousands of people.’
“And yet Nicola Sturgeon, at the urging of her Green coalition partners, is more than prepared to throw the entire sector under a bus.”
He described the position as “self-defeating” because capping domestic production would mean importing more oil from countries such as Russia.
>Halcro Johnston added: “It’s clear that we require a transition plan as we move from fossil fuels but it must be on a realistic time scale, take account of continuing demand for oil and gas, and ensure that there are comparable jobs available. The alternative is unthinkable: the loss of many of our most productive wage-earners and an exodus to other parts of the world as they seek to provide for their families.”
Sturgeon had previously urged the UK government to reassess the plans as concern grows over the effect of fossil fuels on climate change. Last week she said new oil and gas extraction could not continue for ever.
“And I don’t think we can go and continue to give the go-ahead to new oil fields. So I don’t think that Cambo should get the green light,” she said.
Mark Ruskell the Scottish Greens’ climate spokesman welcomed the announcement. However, the industry body Oil and Gas UK said that without Cambo Britain would need to import oil and gas from other countries, giving it a bigger carbon footprint.