Hansard

We are at a critical point in the transition—halfway to net zero—but that is largely as a result of the easy wins, especially the decarbonisation of electricity. Anyone with any credibility at all accepts the reality that change is needed.

Outright climate denial is largely a fringe notion that is confined to the absurdities of GB News and the far-right press, but that was not always the case. The fossil fuel industry understood the fundamentals of the harm that it was doing to the world as long ago as the 1960s. Initially, it covered it up. Then, as the science came to be understood more widely, it pumped out lies and conspiracy theories as rapidly as it continued pumping out oil and gas. It succeeded in delaying climate action for decades. As millionaires became billionaires, the damage that they were quite deliberately doing to our global life-support system continued.

The fossil fuel industry’s creation of the climate denial conspiracy movement should go down in history as one of the greatest crimes against humanity ever perpetrated. The damage that it did is still with us, but, more recently, the fossil fuel industry has been successful at creating a new threat by moving its strategy from climate denial to climate delay. It says, “Of course, there should be a transition, but let us manage it in our own time and at a slower pace.” There was a time when all of this could have been done more slowly. It would have been easier. It would probably have been cheaper in the long run, too. That time was when the science first became clear and when we still had decades in which to act, but the fossil fuel industry was doing everything possible to put its own profits ahead of the survival of our world.

Whatever else we disagree about across the political spectrum, we should agree on the interests of the workforce whose livelihoods are at stake. To anyone working in the oil and gas sector, I say that, if your family or community is dependent on that industry, you need an active transition to make sure that there is a decent, secure future after the fossil fuel age. If that is what you need, it should be clear to you that the fossil fuel industry is your greatest enemy. It will always put its short-term profits ahead of your long-term future. It did it before, it is doing it now and it will continue to do it for as long as Governments allow it.

To those who say, “Let’s work with the fossil fuel industry on the transition,” I say that it is time to get real. As research from Oil Change International just a couple of months ago showed, of the large oil companies, including many of those working in the Scottish North Sea, many have plans to increase their global oil and gas production—not to transition away from it, but to increase it—and many of them are also ranked among the world’s most climate-wrecking investor-owned companies, based on their historical pollution.

The industry cannot be trusted to lead this change. Only assertive interventionist approaches from Government will get results at the rapid pace that is now required after decades of industry delays. We have seen the Tories ripping up their climate policies—thankfully, they will be out of Government very soon. The SNP is now back to its old ways. Instead of accelerating action on climate, Kate Forbes is quoted today as saying that the SNP has

“been clear that we’re not against new”

oil and gas licences and has

“never said no”.

That represents a shameless retreat from a position of climate leadership. The SNP is even attacking Labour’s half-hearted and insipid measures as too extreme. For its part, Labour wants to talk to us about GB energy, but it seems to be as unclear as the industry is about what that actually would be.

It is clear that only the Greens are willing to act like our future depends on it, shifting away from fossil fuel at the speed that is required and willing to use progressive taxation so that the wealth that is being hoarded by the super rich can be used to invest at the scale and pace that the transition demands.

I move amendment S6M-13482.2, to leave out from “makes” to end and insert:

“has made to Scotland’s economy and the contribution that it has made to the greenhouse gas emissions, which threaten the future of humanity and much of the living world; accepts the reality that the North Sea is a declining basin, that most of its production is for export and does not contribute to energy security, and that the world already has far more fossil fuel in existing reserves than it can afford to use in any scenario consistent with the Paris Agreement; notes that the industry supports an estimated 30,000 direct jobs and that these skilled workers need a managed transition to green industries that is both just and fast; further notes the long track record of the fossil fuel industry in first covering up climate science, then promoting climate denial conspiracy theories, before shifting to its current strategy of lobbying for slower climate action; notes with concern reports that the Scottish Government is considering ending its presumption against new oil and gas licences; condemns the UK Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, which would reward the fossil fuel industry and do nothing to reduce the UK’s dependence on it; notes with concern the extremist positions taken by some fossil fuel apologists who are opposed to the very existence of a liveable world, and condemns their actions, which are irresponsible, damaging and disruptive.”