First Minister challenged to take a stand against climate-wrecking Rosebank oil field
The Scottish Greens have blasted Labour for approving the Jackdaw gas field while calling out the SNP’s evasion and inability to take a position.
Speaking at the party’s conference at Eden Court in Inverness, co-leader Gillian Mackay challenged the First Minister, John Swinney, to join the movement against the climate-wrecking Rosebank oil field that is proposed for the North Sea.
With nearly 500 million barrels of oil, Rosebank is the biggest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea.
In her speech, Gillian said:
“Using the government’s own figures, Greenpeace worked out that burning Jackdaw’s gas will cause £16 billion of damage and over 8,000 heat-related deaths around the world. More greenhouse gases, more extreme weather, more crop failures, more climate breakdown.
“And for what? Oil and gas lobbyists will tell you this will help with energy bills - they're lying to you. The UK Government has admitted that Jackdaw will not lower energy bills.
“Oil and gas lobbyists will tell you this will be good for jobs – they're lying to you. Jackdaw’s developer has estimated it will create just 27 new jobs.
“Oil and gas lobbyists will tell you this will improve our energy security – they're lying to you. This will not stop the UK from needing to import gas.
“Of course, it will help boost Shell’s profits, while our fuel bills will continue to soar this winter.
“As for the SNP, after years of swithering they seem to be happy with Jackdaw too, or maybe not – they don’t seem to have made up their minds. They’ve welcomed the ‘certainty’ of Burnham’s decision but don’t seem to be able to find any certainty about whether they agree with it or not.
“Labour in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood – both of them seem unable to take the climate crisis seriously, they don’t seem able to make the just transition into a reality.
"In the Scottish Greens we take the climate crisis seriously – and we are not in the pockets of oil firms or big business.
“So, alone among the major parties, we are the only ones with the courage to tell the truth about what's going. And we say to the Burnham government to stop the even more disastrous Rosebank oil field going ahead.
“But the SNP need to decide what they think about Rosebank too. They can’t keep hiding behind Westminster – what do they really think? John Swinney needs to decide as a matter of urgency where the SNP is going on oil and gas and the climate emergency.
“Are they going back to being the pro-oil party of the past? The first person to welcome Jackdaw was Donald Trump - do they really want to fall in line behind that tangerine eejit?
"Are they going to turn their back on Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy, of a more responsible approach to oil and gas that followed the climate science?
“The SNP can double down on fossil fuels. Or they can protect our future generations from climate breakdown. But they can’t do both.
“First Minister, we know where we stand but what about you? It's time to put people and planet before the profits of money-hungry corporations, like Shell, Equinor and BP.
“First Minister, do you have the courage to oppose Rosebank?”