Cambo oil field: Oil and gas workers need more help to find green jobs, experts warn. The SNP-led Scottish government has promised to spend £500m on a “just transition” away from oil and gas over the next decade. But there is little detail on how that money is to be spent. Scottish Labour is calling for an ‘offshore training passport’ to standardise offshore training across the energy sector. This will make it cheaper and easier for oil and gas workers to qualify for jobs in adjacent industries such as offshore wind, it argues. “We need strong state intervention here. It’s not about stigmatizing or demonizing the workers,” Scottish Labour MSP Monica Lennon told i. “There are a lot of warm words right now about a just transition but many of the workers that we speak to don’t yet believe it because they don’t see the public investment, they don’t see the action on the ground, to help people make that shift from oil and gas to offshore renewables.” Others say the government needs to be more proactive in providing clear advice for workers, alongside more investment in greener industries to spur the growth of new jobs. “You need to take people by the hand,” said Erik Dalhuijsen, a consultant petroleum and sustainability engineer based in Aberdeen. The tone of the conversation may also need to change, some warn. In Aberdeen, a major hub for Scotland’s oil and gas industry, climate campaigners have left oil workes “feeling like the baddies” according to Ryan Crighton, policy director at Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce.
iNews 4th Dec 2021 read more »
THE withdrawal of Shell from the Cambo oil field development is not necessarily the beginning of the end for fossil fuels and transition to a zero carbon energy policy, nor the death-knell for the economy of the north-east. Even if it were either or both of those things, it would clearly not be cause for unqualified celebration or for condemnation. It is more likely to be an early indication that the choices made in pursuing greener energy and climate ambitions (shared by the governments at Holyrood and Westminster and recently adopted at the COP conference in Glasgow) involve time, difficult decisions, and significant economic costs.
Herald 4th Dec 2021 read more »