Activists disrupt SSE and its AGM over planned Peterhead fossil fuel power station

Climate campaigners targeted the energy company SSE in Perth on Thursday 17 July over its plans to build a new fossil fuel power station at Peterhead. Activists held protests both inside and outside the firm’s AGM:

SSE under fire over new Peterhead station

Activist shareholders inside the event questioned the company’s Board, challenging them over their recent admission that the proposed new gas burning power station at Peterhead would be three times more damaging to the climate than originally claimed.

SSE bosses were grilled over the failures of carbon capture technology on which the plant relies, as well as the increasing pollution that will be caused by gas imports as North Sea production declines.

A crowd outside the Perth Concert Hall protested the revelation that total emissions created by the fossil fuel project would rise from 6.3 million tonnes to 17.1 million tonnes. SSE was recently forced to redo its climate calculations after earlier assessments failed to include the inevitable pollution from extracting and transporting the gas to be burned at the Peterhead site.

Over 30 climate groups and 1600 individuals recently responded to the public consultation on the new pollution figures calling for the project to be rejected.

Adrian Johnson, one of the activists asking questions inside the AGM, said:

I’m a grandad and former deputy headteacher. Climate science couldn’t be clearer that we desperately need to end the use of fossil fuels. That’s why I went to the SSE AGM – to call out the boss, the leadership and board of this energy giant for plotting to shackle my future and that of my grandchildren to murderous fossil fuels for decades to come.

Protesters outside spoke to shareholders attending the AGM urging them to also challenge the company’s plans to continue using fossil fuels to generate electricity, which would link energy bills to volatile international gas prices. SSE made £2.4billion in profits last year whilst a third of Scottish households were trapped into fuel poverty:

Madness

SSE’s existing power station in Peterhead is already amongst Scotland’s biggest polluters with the company confirming that it will continue burning gas until 2040. The proposals for an additional gas plant will run until 2055, well past Scotland’s net zero target date.

Friends of the Earth Scotland highlighted the fact that, despite the company’s marketing and green image, 57% of SSE’s energy generation output comes from non-renewable sources. SSE also announced recently that it would scale back its renewables investment by £3billion.

Freya Aitchison, Oil and Gas Activism Organiser at Friends of the Earth Scotland commented:

People concerned about climate and fuel poverty have been consistently protesting SSE’s plans to build a new power station in Peterhead. SSE bosses and shareholders are cashing in on the cost-of-living crisis, keeping us locked into volatile gas prices and high energy bills, while accelerating climate breakdown by burning fossil fuels.

People have had enough of SSE’s greenwash and hypocrisy. We see them touting their green credentials despite generating most of its energy from fossil fuels and cutting its renewables investments. SSE know that oil and gas are driving the extreme weather we are facing in Scotland from wildfires to heatwaves and intense storms, yet it is choosing to double down in pursuit of profit.

We’re at SSE’s AGM to tell the company’s shareholders that there is no future in fossil fuels. The climate movement has stopped big polluters in their tracks before – from the fracking industry, to the Cambo oil field and the Hunterston power station and we can do it again in Peterhead.

Featured image and additional images via Garry F McHarg/Focal Scotland