Scotland’s north east ‘dangerously’ at risk of no just transition, says Martin

Scotland’s Energy Secretary has warned the north east could be “dangerously” at risk of losing a future with a just transition.

Gillian Martin said she would be “damned” if North Sea workers faced job losses similar to the impact of deindustrialisation in the 1970s and 1980s.

The SNP minister said Scotland had a “very big opportunity” to pivot to renewables after years of extracting fossil fuels.

She said the country could see a future with the best economy it has ever had – but if it fails to realise the potential of net zero, she warned of dire economic consequences.

Ms Martin told a fringe event at the SNP conference in Aberdeen: “My father was in shipbuilding and John Brown’s in Clydebank and that’s the reason I’m an Aberdonian, is because that all fell apart basically.

“So one of the major industries in the central belt, one of many for which there wasn’t a just transition.”

She said the north east was “potentially and dangerously in a situation where there could not be a just transition”, adding: “I’ll be damned if that happens, because basically the place that my mum and dad are from, in Clydebank, has never recovered and neither has many other places.”

Ms Martin said Scotland had a “huge opportunity” to move to renewables and away from fossil fuels.

She said the country already had the firms and the skills needed to make the change.

But Ms Martin warned that if governments do not make the most of the switch to green energy, skilled workers will leave for other countries.

She added: “I never want to see the communities that I represent and my north east colleagues represent being in the situation that Clydebank, Hamilton, Motherwell, etc, were within due to a lack of a just transition.”