Scottish Acorn carbon capture project 'part of spending review'
There have been growing calls from business leaders for investment in the project, which has been on a reserve list for funding.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce the budgets for all government departments over the next few years on Wednesday, which will include information on what new projects will receive investment.
In the House of Commons on Tuesday, ministers were asked a number of times about funding for the project.
St Fergus Gas Terminal near Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. (Image: PA) The BBC reports that Energy Minister Sarah Jones told MPs they didn't have long to wait to see what the spending review had to say about the project.
She said: "We have always been clear that we support the Acorn Project" adding "we know what an important proposal it is.
"The decision is a matter for a spending review but we are very close to having those decisions".
In March, business leaders including oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood and organisations such as the Scottish Chambers of Commerce signed a letter urging the chancellor to back the project.
READ MORE: SNP's Flynn accuses Labour of sidelining Scotland after Acorn carbon capture snub Swinney clashes with Tories over windfall tax as Harbour Energy cuts 250 jobs
The letter argued that the project had faced two decades of setbacks, and that it is needed to help Scottish industry decarbonise.
If it is given the go-ahead, waste CO2 will be piped from central Scotland to St Fergus using redundant pipelines which previously carried natural gas south.
Experts say the technology is vital for Scotland to meet its climate targets.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Scotland flights ambitions of Edinburgh Airport chief
Asked in an exclusive interview with The Herald about new routes, taking into account how demand from travellers was developing, Gordon Dewar said: 'We think the Chinese and the Indian markets and other Asian markets are clearly things we should be working on, and we are.' While he said he was 'not going to speculate' on what would happen on this front, Mr Dewar added: 'The growth there demonstrates the opportunity. 'We just work quietly and we celebrate them [new routes] when they arrive.' He highlighted a major uplift in travel to destinations to which new, direct long-haul routes were launched. Mr Dewar said 'longer-haul new destinations add 30% to 50% to travel', noting direct routes meant journeys were 'less time-consuming". He highlighted Edinburgh Airport's success in winning direct flights between the Scottish capital and Beijing operated by Hainan Airlines, which revealed recently it was extending this service to year-round. Mr Dewar said: 'Hainan were one of many Chinese airlines we talked to. They were the one that responded first to really compelling data about why Chinese airlines will be very successful flying to Edinburgh." He flagged 'tens of thousands of Scots travelling between Scotland and Beijing…having to do it through other destinations' previously. Read more It was announced in late April that Hainan's direct service to Beijing would be increasing from seasonal to year-round. Edinburgh Airport has also enjoyed significant success in recent times in winning and building direct flights to North America, serving various key destinations in the US and Canada. It was announced in the spring that United Airlines is extending its service between Edinburgh and Washington DC to what the airport characterised as 'almost year-round'. In March, it was confirmed that Air Canada would launch a new direct route between Edinburgh and Montreal this summer. Mr Dewar said: 'We got a new Montreal route that was probably at least in part motivated by the reduction in traffic between Canada and America. We would have got Montreal at some point. I am not sure we would have got it this year if it hadn't been for that disruption.' Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar (Image: Edinburgh Airport) He highlighted his confidence that Edinburgh Airport will handle more than 16 million passengers this year, setting another all-time high to exceed the record of 15.78 million it achieved in 2024. In 2012, the year in which Mr Dewar took up the chief executive post at the airport, the passenger total was 9.19 million. Asked about the airport's capacity, in the context of its rapid increase in passenger numbers in recent years and the further expansion of flights projected, Mr Dewar replied: 'We have to build quickly…but we are not at the stage of being full yet. That has been true since 2012 where, apart from Covid, we have been in a constant build programme to keep up with that demand. 'We have got the space. We have got the funding. It is just a matter of getting it all lined up and making sure it lands the day before it is needed.' Mr Dewar highlighted the scale of the growth in the long-haul segment at Edinburgh Airport, and the general reduction in domestic traffic as things he did not foresee when he became chief executive. He underlined the extent to which overall passenger growth at Edinburgh Airport had been driven by international flights. Mr Dewar said: 'The ratio of international [traffic] we have is higher. All the growth is international. We have increased our proportion of inbound [passenger traffic]. The American routes – they tend to be stronger inbound demand.' Asked if he would in 2012 have envisaged passenger numbers being where they are now, Mr Dewar replied: 'We had a five-year plan [in 2012] which we slightly bettered.' 'Thirteen years later, the mix is slightly different from what I expected. No one would have seen the reduction in domestic and during Covid.' He declared that 'no one would have seen the growth in long haul'.
Daily Record
2 hours ago
- Daily Record
Time to step up and fix housing crisis after Swinney handed £9billion funding boost
Scotland's housing emergency is easy to ignore if you're fortunate enough to own your own home or have a secure tenancy with a socially responsible landlord. But everyone's personal circumstances can change dramatically. Finding somewhere new to live has become markedly harder in recent years. Mortgage rates have soared while the private rental market has exploded. Rising numbers of Scots across the country have been forced to declare themselves homeless to their local council because they cannot find affordable accommodation. This increasing demand has in turn led to multiple local authorities declaring housing emergencies. The end result is 10,000 children living with their families in unsuitable temporary accommodation such as B&Bs or hotels. Homelessness charities have repeatedly warned rough sleeping is also on the rise. The UK Government yesterday pledged £39billion would be spent on providing affordable homes over the next decade in England. Housing is a devolved issue so it's now up to SNP ministers in Holyrood to match that level of ambition in Scotland. The Scottish Government will receive more cash over the next three years as a result of Rachel Reeves's spending review. It's up to them to ensure this extra funding is channelled into housebuilding. There must be a joint approach with local authorities – particularly in our biggest cities – to ensure there is a huge push to build more affordable homes. Our housing emergency has gone on long enough. It's time the Scottish Government stepped up and ended it. Knife crime plea Graeme Pearson, ex-director-general of the Scottish Drug and Crime Enforcement Agency, makes a strong argument for upping efforts to steer youngsters away from violence. On the day John Swinney hosts a youth violence summit, Pearson says more must be done to provide alternatives for young people to help steer them away from offending. His call is an echo of the Record's Our Kids ... Our future campaign. But Pearson goes further and warns that many of those youths using knives may be lured into organised crime by the prospect of easy money. That point has been made clear in recent weeks when you consider the ages of those arrested in connection with the gangland feud in Scotland. Most are in their late teens and early 20s. Summits, like the one Swinney hosts today, must make clear the consequences of knife crime but also hammer home there is nothing glamorous about a criminal life.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Did ChatGPT get the spending review right? Treasury minister gives his verdict
The chief secretary to the Treasury has called the Sky News-Chat GPT spending review projection "pretty good" and scored it 70%. Darren Jones compared the real spending review, delivered by Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, and the Sky News AI (artificial intelligence) projection last week. Sky News took the Treasury's spring statement, past spending reviews, the 'main estimates' from the Treasury website, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies' projections, and put them into ChatGPT, asking it to calculate the winners and losers in the spending review. This was done 10 days ahead of the review - before several departments had agreed their budgets with the Treasury - on the basis of projections based on those public documents. It also comes amid a big debate kicked off by Sky News about the level of error of AI. The Sky News-AI projection correctly put defence and health as the biggest winners, the Foreign Office as the biggest loser, and identified many departments would lose out in real terms overall. It suggested the education budget would be smaller than it turned out, but correctly highlighted the challenges for departments like the Home Office and environment. Watch what happened with Sky's AI-generated spending review 1:31 Reviewing the exercise, the author of the real spending review told Sky News that this pioneering use of AI was "pretty, pretty good". He added: "I could be out of a job next time in 2027, which to be honest, it's not a bad idea given the process I've just had to go through." The Treasury made a number of accounting changes to so-called "mega projects" which AI could not have anticipated, and changed some of the numbers. 3:43 Asked to give it a score, Mr Jones replied: "I'm going to give it 70%." The spending review includes AI as a tool to save money in various government processes.
