Environmental campaigners have raised concerns that millions of pounds from the Scottish Government’s Just Transition Fund have been awarded to an oil tycoon, controversial projects and a private sector group backed by the fossil fuel industry. Taxpayer funded grants from the Just Transition Fund (JTF) include £5m awarded to an organisation chaired by oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood, and £2m to the Net Zero Technology Centre, which is backed by oil firms including Shell and BP. Another £14m was given to a “contentious project which will destroy a vital community park”, said Friends of the Earth Scotland, which argues that the JTF should directly benefit workers and communities and not just the private sector. The Scottish Government said the £500m fund — a decade-long initiative — is designed to help communities across the north east and Moray, and support projects which contribute towards the region’s transition to net zero. The government said it had “engaged extensively” with workers, trade unions, communities, businesses and local authorities in the region. At the recent SNP Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced £50m worth of awards for 22 JTF projects. Over £14m will go to the Energy Transition Zone (ETZ), which has been opposed by local residents in Torry, Aberdeen, where St Fittick’s Community Park will be destroyed to make way for the project. Campaigners argue that alternative sites should be considered. The Scottish Government can’t throw money at oil tycoons to ride over the wishes of local people and badge it a Just Transition. Ryan Morrison, Just Transition campaigner The ETZ is a plan to build sites for the development, production, assembly, storage and distribution of energy infrastructure, in the hope that this will encourage ‘green’ companies to come to the area. The ETZ’s backers include Opportunity North East (ONE) – a “private development sector catalyst” group chaired by Sir Ian Wood, which was awarded £5m by the JTF. The ETZ has been given £53m in public funding from the UK and Scottish Governments and £5.7m from ONE. Those voicing opposition to ETZ include Ishbel Shand, a member of the Friends of St Fitticks Park campaign. She referred to the first minister’s speech at the SNP conference, when Sturgeon condemned the UK Government over “massive hand-outs for the wealthiest at the expense of everyone else”. Shand told The Ferret: “Yet the same Scottish Government has just handed almost £20m from the Just Transition Fund to an oil billionaire’s pet projects, on top of the over £50m it already received from Scottish ministers and the UK Government. All of this public money to industrialise a lovely wee park – the last accessible place for one of the most deprived areas in the city – in pursuit of fantasy job figures and a dream to make Aberdeen the ‘net zero capital of the world’.” Shand added: “Local doctors have deplored the plan to trash the park, the local community has rejected it and the media has been scathing. One can only suppose that the government, having backed a white elephant, are determined to feed it bales of public money in the hope that it will all work out in the end, when the predictable result is much more likely to be large amounts of elephant excrement”. Another project funded by the JTF is the Net Zero Technology Centre (the Centre) which will receive £2.1m for research and development of — what Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) described as — “controversial nature-based solutions and inefficient green hydrogen”. The Centre, formerly known as the Oil and Gas Technology Centre, was established to support the oil and gas industry and lists major oil companies as partners on its website. They include the oil giants Chevron, BP, and Shell. FoES argues that green hydrogen is an “expensive and inefficient use” of renewable energy. A sum of £100,000 will go to the NESS Energy Project to research the feasibility of carbon capture and storage retrofit at inc...