Net Zero can’t be a race to bottom amid closure of Grangemouth oil refinery

Record View
·2-min read
Oil refining at Grangemouth will end in 2025 after a century of operation
-Credit: (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)


The closure of Scotland’s only oil refinery is a stark reminder that the loss of heavy industry did not end in the 80s. Oil has been refined at Grangemouth for just over a century but that long story will come to an end in spring next year.

More than 400 skilled and well-paid jobs will be lost in the next two years as a result of yesterday’s shattering announcement. There is a future for the wider Grangemouth complex – the larger and more profitable petrochemical plant will continue – but its size and influence in British industry will be diminished.

At a time when the North Sea oil and gas sector is also declining, there is an urgent need for both the UK and Scottish governments to clarify what exactly it means when it talks of a “just transition” to net zero. Many Scots could be forgiven for thinking it means well-paid jobs are lost and replaced with fewer positions in a renewables sector that has so far failed to live up to its hype.

READ MORE:Governments must work together to tackle Scotland's shameful drugs crisis

READ MORE:SNP Government considers banning pint glass logos in battle to reduce deaths from alcohol

We can’t just sit back and let the markets decide to shut down massive parts of our economy, with no strategy to replace oil jobs with other skilled industrial posts. The Grangemouth refinery closure is a disaster for the local and national economy.

Holyrood and Westminster must now work together to work out how we reach net zero without creating a jobs desert. The Scottish economy needs more skilled jobs. It can’t survive on warm words and vague promises.

Talk transplants

It is every mum’s worst nightmare having a child in danger yet knowing that somebody, somewhere could help save them. That is exactly the situation that Jade Earaker is in as she pleads for a transplant for her sick wee boy Zachary.

The two-year-old is in desperate need of a small bowel and liver transplant in order to survive. But the donation has to come from another child – with Zachary too small to accept larger adult organs.

Such donations are exceptionally rare but Jade has now been told Zach may not see his third birthday without the procedure he needs. In the Daily Record today, Jade has issued a plea to parents to consider signing their child up for organ donation.

She acknowledges how difficult this is for mums and dads to even think about but says it could make a massive difference to sick children everywhere. This is a conversation we all need to have with our loved ones – no matter how tough we find it to talk about.

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