{"version":1,"tree":{"n":"html","c":[{"n":"head","x":"\n ","l":"\n ","c":[{"n":"title","x":"Desconocido","l":"\n \n "},{"n":"link","l":"\n","a":[["rel","stylesheet"],["type","text/css"],["href","../../stylesheet.css"]]},{"n":"link","l":"\n","a":[["rel","stylesheet"],["type","text/css"],["href","../../page_styles.css"]]}]},{"n":"body","a":[["class","calibre"]],"c":[{"n":"div","x":"| ","a":[["class","calibre_navbar"]],"c":[{"n":"a","x":"Siguiente","l":" | ","a":[["href","javascript:void(0)"],["rel","articlenextlink"],["data-xQvX3JSyyUS4yAvbblzwf5","{\"name\": \"feed_6/article_6/index_u1.html\", \"frag\": \"\"}"]]},{"n":"a","x":"Menú de sección","l":" | ","a":[["href","javascript:void(0)"],["data-xQvX3JSyyUS4yAvbblzwf5","{\"name\": \"feed_6/index_u13.html\", \"frag\": \"\", \"missing\": true}"]]},{"n":"a","x":"Menú principal","l":" | ","a":[["href","javascript:void(0)"],["data-xQvX3JSyyUS4yAvbblzwf5","{\"name\": \"index_u63.html\", \"frag\": \"feed_6\"}"]]},{"n":"a","x":"Anterior","l":" | ","a":[["href","javascript:void(0)"],["rel","articleprevlink"],["data-xQvX3JSyyUS4yAvbblzwf5","{\"name\": \"feed_6/article_4/index_u12.html\", \"frag\": \"\"}"]]},{"n":"hr","l":"\n","a":[["class","calibre6"]]}]},{"n":"div","a":[["class","calibre-nuked-tag-article"]],"c":[{"n":"div","x":"The green stuff","a":[["class","calibre8"]]},{"n":"h1","x":"Aberdeen shows why the UK’s clean-energy transition will be messy","a":[["class","calibre9"]]},{"n":"div","x":"The jobs in renewables can’t come fast enough to replace those related to oil and gas","a":[["class","calibre19"]]},{"n":"p","x":"may. 08, 2025 01:49 | Aberdeen","a":[["class","calibre10"]]},{"n":"div","a":[["class","calibre-nuked-tag-article"]],"c":[{"n":"img","a":[["src","images/img1_u36.jpg"],["title","offshore wind turbines and oil tankers in Aberdeen"],["class","calibre3"],["data-calibre-src","feed_6/article_5/images/img1_u36.jpg"]]}]},{"n":"div","x":"Dreich outlook","a":[["class","calibre11"]]},{"n":"p","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"A","a":[["data-caps","initial"],["class","calibre13"]]},{"n":"span","x":"LONG UNION STREET","l":" in Aberdeen, boarded-up shops offer little hint of the Scottish city’s past prosperity. At its peak, fuelled by the discovery in 1969 of oil and gas in the North Sea, Aberdeen boasted Britain’s highest concentration of millionaires, surpassing London. Now, the diminishing role of oil and gas has left its mark. Aberdeen’s housing market has crashed and young people have left in droves. As the world transitions to a low-carbon future, the city is repositioning itself as a renewables powerhouse. But can it shed its reliance on fossil fuels?","a":[["class","calibre14"]]}]},{"n":"p","x":"Scotland’s abundant natural resources give Aberdeen a unique edge. Thanks to its wind capacity, most of the 17","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"GW","l":" of floating wind projects in Scottish waters are within 100 nautical miles of Aberdeen’s coast. Mountainous terrain and ample rainfall make it well-suited for hydropower. Strong tides and a long coastline are ideal for wave and tidal energy.","a":[["class","calibre14"]]}]},{"n":"p","x":"Aberdeen’s oil-and-gas heritage has advantages, too. Decades of underground expertise bring transferable skills and proximity to key infrastructure. The city’s deepwater berths can help in building and towing large turbines. The local St Fergus gas terminal will house the Acorn carbon capture and storage (","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"CCS","l":") project, aimed at cutting industrial carbon emissions.","a":[["class","calibre14"]]}]},{"n":"p","x":"Investment is flowing to Aberdeen as a result. As much as £30bn ($40bn) could be spent on clean energy and infrastructure projects over the coming decade, according to Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce (","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"AGCC","l":"), a trade body. A dozen offshore wind turbines and a new £420m harbour have emerged along the coastline. Plans are under way for an Energy Transition Zone, a net-zero research hub more than 15 times the size of the local football stadium. A few miles away, Shell’s former headquarters has been razed to the ground to make way for an electric-car charging station and other green developments.","a":[["class","calibre14"]]}]},{"n":"p","x":"The rewards for getting the transition right are vast. But as the rapid decline of coal mining, shipbuilding and other heavy industry in the 1970s and 1980s illustrates, the timing of the switch is fraught with risk. Aberdeen’s dependence on the fossil-fuel industry leaves it exposed. The oil-and-gas sector employs one in three working adults in the region, compared with one in 220 across Britain. A third of industry jobs have been lost since the oil-price downturn of 2015. Grangemouth, Scotland’s only oil refinery, and Harbour Energy, Britain’s largest oil and gas producer, are the latest casualties. More than 650 workers will be laid off.","a":[["class","calibre12"]]},{"n":"p","x":"Green jobs have not yet filled the gap. Oil rigs require hundreds of people to maintain. Wind farms can be maintained remotely, and many are built abroad. Much of Kincardine Offshore Wind Farm, one of the world’s largest grid-connected floating wind projects, off Aberdeen’s coast, was made in Spain and assembled in Rotterdam before being shipped out.","a":[["class","calibre12"]]},{"n":"p","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"GB","l":" Energy, Britain’s new state-owned energy firm, is unlikely to offset the shortfall in jobs. Eight months after the decision to locate the firm in Aberdeen was announced to great fanfare, it has no office or chief executive. With only £100m of funding for two years (compared with the promised £8.3bn over five years), pledges to employ 1,000 people are now expected to take two decades to materialise.","a":[["class","calibre14"]]}]},{"n":"p","x":"To protect jobs, the renewables sector must scale up quickly. Maintaining the offshore-energy workforce levels of 2023 would require more than doubling Britain’s offshore-wind capacity to an estimated 40","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"GW","l":" at a cost of £10bn over the next five years, according to researchers at Robert Gordon University. On a visit to Aberdeen’s new harbour, a cruise ship and an oil rig are moored in otherwise empty docks. The renewables sector accounts for 10% of all vessel traffic coming in. But this generates just 1% of the harbour’s income.","a":[["class","calibre14"]]}]},{"n":"p","x":"Britain’s transition will be chaotic. Oil and gas still account for three-quarters of energy use, according to Offshore Energies ","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"UK","l":", a trade group. But the government’s proposed policies—extending an effective 78% tax rate on North Sea profits and ending new licences—have frozen oil-and-gas investment. The rapid phasing-out of fossil fuels may reduce carbon emissions at home. But it risks jobs and increases reliance on imports from countries with less rigorous climate targets, says John Underhill, at Aberdeen University.","a":[["class","calibre14"]]}]},{"n":"h4","x":"Blairing out","a":[["class","calibre15"]]},{"n":"p","x":"Sir Tony Blair is the latest to call for rethinking net-zero. The former Labour prime minister last month argued that plans to limit fossil-fuel production were “doomed to fail”. His institute later issued a statement saying that Britain’s approach is “the right one”, but the damage was done. Criticism of Labour’s plans is likely to intensify in the wake of losses in local elections on May 1st.","a":[["class","calibre12"]]},{"n":"p","x":"The dangers of a hasty approach are visible in Aberdeen today. While the oil boom brought wealth to the city, industries like fishing and shipbuilding concentrated in Torry, a working-class area, were left behind. Torry is now the site of less-appealing infrastructure projects, including a sewage-treatment plant. It is a world apart from Aberdeen’s leafy West End, where an influx of oil wealth gave rise to large homes, an international school and Woodbank, a private members’ club for Shell employees. Politicians should take heed. Aberdeen may be well-placed to reap the rewards of the energy transition—but it is dangerously exposed to its hazards, too.","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"span","x":"■"}]},{"n":"p","a":[["class","calibre12"]],"c":[{"n":"i","x":"For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in Britain, ","a":[["class","calibre18"]],"c":[{"n":"a","x":"sign up","l":" to Blighty, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.","a":[["href","https://www.economist.com/newsletters/blighty"],["rel","nofollow"]]}]}]}]},{"n":"div","x":"\n","a":[["class","calibre_navbar"]],"c":[{"n":"hr","l":"\n","a":[["class","calibre6"]]},{"n":"p","x":"This article was downloaded by ","l":"\n","a":[["class","calibre16"]],"c":[{"n":"strong","x":"calibre","l":" from ","a":[["class","calibre13"]]},{"n":"a","x":"https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/05/08/aberdeen-shows-why-the-uks-clean-energy-transition-will-be-messy","a":[["href","https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/05/08/aberdeen-shows-why-the-uks-clean-energy-transition-will-be-messy"],["rel","calibre-downloaded-from"]]}]},{"n":"br","a":[["class","calibre-nuked-tag-article"]]},{"n":"br","l":" | ","a":[["class","calibre-nuked-tag-article"]]},{"n":"a","x":"Menú de sección","l":" | ","a":[["href","javascript:void(0)"],["data-xQvX3JSyyUS4yAvbblzwf5","{\"name\": \"feed_6/index_u13.html\", \"frag\": \"\", \"missing\": true}"]]},{"n":"a","x":"Menú principal","l":" | ","a":[["href","javascript:void(0)"],["data-xQvX3JSyyUS4yAvbblzwf5","{\"name\": \"index_u63.html\", \"frag\": \"feed_6\"}"]]}]}]}]},"ns_map":["http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"]}