Scottish business calls for Chancellor to back Acorn CCUS project 

CBI Scotland and other members of Scotland’s business community have joined forces in a joint letter to urge the UK Government to back the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCUS) project in Aberdeenshire.

In a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ahead of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, they wrote:

Dear Chancellor,

We write to urge the UK Government to commit, in its Comprehensive Spending Review, to progressing Scotland’s only opportunity for industrial decarbonisation, the Acorn CCS project, as an immediate priority.

We welcomed your recent comments in highlighting the role for similar projects in Teesside and Merseyside, which you described as “opportunities as we decarbonise the economy to bring good jobs”. These opportunities also exist in Scotland, and they must be fully realised.

Acorn is Scotland’s only CO₂ transport and storage solution. Without it, there is no route for Scottish industry to decarbonise, threatening jobs and investment. The latest Carbon Budget published by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) makes this point unequivocally. Its Balanced Pathway scenario requires up to 73 MtCO2 of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) annually by 2050 and states the Scottish Cluster could store 10–22 MtCO2 per year by then. Alarmingly the report also highlights that direct employment in oil and gas has declined by a third in Aberdeen and the wider region since 2015, household income has fallen, and poverty has increased.

Your government has repeatedly committed to delivering a just transition for oil and gas workers, particularly in North East Scotland. An economic impact study on the Scottish Cluster states that by advancing Acorn CCS, the Scottish Cluster will contribute £17.7 billion to UK economic output by 2050, create over 10,800 jobs during construction, and sustain 4,700 long-term operational roles. This would be transformational for the region.

A decision to fast-track Acorn now could quickly enable SSE’s plans for carbon capture at its Peterhead site via a proposed new power station with a generating capacity of up to 900MW. Peterhead Carbon Capture would provide flexible, dispatchable power to balance intermittent renewables, ensuring stable electricity supply. This aligns directly with your government’s Energy Security Strategy and Clean Power 2030 Action Plan.

Critically, getting CCS underway at Peterhead will unlock the next phase of industrial decarbonisation for Grangemouth—Scotland’s largest industrial emitter. Without CCS, rising carbon costs will place Grangemouth at a competitive disadvantage, threatening further job losses and industrial decline. The impending closure of the Grangemouth refinery with over 400 job losses is a stark warning of the economic risks of delaying industrial decarbonisation.

There has never been a more important time for this project to proceed at pace. Fast-tracking Acorn would unlock £7 billion in private investment, repurpose existing infrastructure for cost-effective CO2 storage and lay the foundation for long-term industrial competitiveness. This will support Grangemouth’s transition, protect thousands of skilled jobs, and position the region as a hub for clean industrial growth – delivering strong returns for both the economy and the taxpayer.

We fully endorse the comments of Chris Stark, Head of Mission Control for Clean Power 2030, who has declared CCUS is “vital to meeting the UK’s and the world’s climate change commitments”. Yet despite its strategic and economic importance, Acorn CCS has faced nearly two decades of delay.

If the UK is serious about decarbonisation, economic growth and energy security, we must move faster and more decisively.

Scotland must not be left behind.