New Scottish Government in race to build support for Scottish carbon capture cluster as hopes for renewables boom fade

The SNP Government has suffered a fresh blow to its credibility as claims that Scotland is set for a carbon capture boom have been undermined by the firm ministers have counted on to lead the country’s effort.

Storegga highlighted concerns about how firms would fund investment in carbon capture within minutes of new energy secretary Stephen Gethins using his first address to underline official confidence that the technology will power growth in Scotland while helping solve the emissions problem.

“Carbon capture and storage is important not just for our climate goals but crucially also for our economy,” Mr Gethins told industry leaders as he insisted the case for the controversial technology was firmly established.

“It’s great taking on this portfolio as the conversation shifts from if CCS happens to how quickly we can deliver it,” the Dundee East MSP crowed.

He made the claim at a summit organised by oil and gas trade body Offshore Energies UK to help boost support for carbon capture and the flagging drive to develop hydrogen as a major source of clean energy.

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The attendees at the summit reflected the range of businesses that hope to capitalise on the official carbon capture drive but their comments underlined the scale of the challenges facing ministers.

While SNP Governments have claimed hydrogen could help power Scotland to prosperity, production and usage levels for the fuel remain much lower than hoped.

Champions still insist that hydrogen could play a big part in the drive to decarbonise industry. They highlight the potential to use carbon capture facilities to deal with emissions resulting from the production of so-called blue hydrogen from natural gas.

But environmentalists oppose carbon capture on the grounds it is an excuse to keep using oil and gas and have expressed........

© Herald Scotland