Scotland faces climate chasm

'Hot air’ carbon capture forecast is slashed

- DAN VEVERS

SCOTLAND faces a “gaping chasm” in its net-zero plans due to over-reliance on carbon capture technology, experts have claimed.

Holyrood ministers had insisted carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities in the north-east could slash Scots’ emissions by 25 per cent by 2032.

But environment campaigners have branded their claims “hot air” after a massive downgrading of official estimates.

CCS aims to suck harmful CO2 from the air as fossil fuels are burned before piping the gas to empty North Sea oil wells.

However, research commissioned by the Scott i sh Government found “negative emissions technologies” will capture just 2.2 megatons of carbon a year by 2032 – barely a third of the 5.7 megatons target.

Scotland has a planned CCS facility at St Fergus Terminal, Aberdeenshire, run by the so-called “Acorn cluster” of energy firms including Shell.

SSE is proposing another next to its Peterhead gas plant.