Energy security has been a theme of climate obstruction for many years, to address wider geopolitical concerns about energy supply and the associated price increases and ‘cost of living’ crisis.
The recent enthusiastic embrace of net zero rhetoric by key trade associations and trade unions representing oil and gas interests in Scotland illustrates their repositioning as realist actors in climate policy networks. Net zero is a remarkably business-friendly approach to addressing climate issues as it allows fundamental changes to business practices and strategies to be postponed almost indefinitely. While oil and gas interests have offered symbolic concessions to climate concerns, they have also been highly effective in securing their own short-term economic interests. In the Scottish context, this success is due largely to the pro-exploration policy position of the UK government.
While the Scottish government has championed climate mitigation, it would be a mistake to assume that there is either wide or deep consensus that such policy goals can easily be pursued in the short to medium term, even if the respective division of powers between Scotland and the United Kingdom were to change. Many within the SNP are supportive of the oil and gas industry, and, while onshore extraction was hugely unpopular with the electorate, factions within most of Scotland’s political parties (save the Greens and Scottish Socialists) have been prepared to consider such development. With offshore extraction, the British political class has repeatedly sought to protect investment and employment in oil and gas. The hard decisions around fossil fuel disinvestment and transition have been continually postponed. This is the practical effect of the widespread political lobbying efforts to sustain the inherently unsustainable extractive industries. While there is a rhetorical recognition of the climate emergency in Scottish politics, the oil and gas industry in Scotland continues to operate and expand