00:00 Hello, I'm Alistair Grant and I'm the Political Editor of the Scotsman and I'm here at Shell's
00:04 St Fergus gas plant in Aberdeenshire where the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been visiting
00:09 to make some major announcements relating to energy. So he's confirmed funding for the
00:16 Acorn carbon capture project here in St Fergus and he's also been confirming more than 100
00:22 new oil and gas licences in the North Sea. Both of these controversial in their own ways
00:27 although the Scottish Government, the SNP, First Minister Humza Yousaf welcoming that
00:32 announcement on the Acorn project. It's something they have been pushing for, that they are
00:36 supportive of, that they say the UK Government hasn't been acting quickly enough on. But
00:42 those announcements around North Sea oil and gas fields are a lot more controversial from
00:46 their point of view. Humza Yousaf, the First Minister today, saying that unlimited extraction
00:50 in the North Sea is, to quote him, "to recklessly gamble the future of our planet for cheap
00:55 political gain". So particularly with the climate crisis becoming an ever bigger political
01:00 issue, something that comes up a lot in politics, we should expect this to feature heavily in
01:04 the years to come, especially with the parties, with Labour's policy being quite different
01:09 when it comes to North Sea oil and gas than Rishi Sunak's.
01:13 ------------------------------6f8f6f8f5f6f5--
Comments