Aberdeen SNP candidate who took UK Government to court on why oil and gas industry must end soon

By Craig Munro

April 12 2022, 11:45 am

Kairin van Sweeden, who is standing in the local elections for the SNP.

Aberdeen SNP candidate Kairin van Sweeden, who took the UK Government to court over its support for the oil and gas industry, has insisted energy transition must happen as soon as possible.

Ms van Sweeden, who is running for the city council in the Tillydrone, Seaton and Old Aberdeen ward, tried to claim the strategy of the government’s Oil and Gas Authority – now called the North Sea Transition Authority – was unlawful.

She and the two other plaintiffs, all part of the campaign group Paid to Pollute, argued it did not take into account the billions of pounds of public money that supports the industry.

While the group did not win the case, Ms van Sweeden told the P&J she thought it was “important” that awareness was brought to the subject.

The three activists at the beginning of their High Court hearing over North Sea oil plans. From left, Jeremy Cox, Kairin van Sweeden and Mikaela Loach. Picture from Paid to Pollute

She also denied winning the case would have been a blow to the oil and gas industry, emphasising the need for a “just transition”.

Ms van Sweeden, the executive director of thinktank Modern Money Scotland, was brought up in Tillydrone with a father who worked as a welder, pipefitter and fabricator on oil rigs. Her mother served as the administrator for the Offshore Industrial Liaison Committee.

She said: “What we need is a just transition – what we don’t want to see is what happened in the 1980s, when people were thrown out of their jobs.

“We need to see a just transition, and people transitioned carefully over into the renewables industry.

“But renewables are clearly, obviously the future, and they are renewable of course.”

She added: “The UK government has the financial power to set a new green deal in motion yesterday, it should have set it in motion years ago.”

Government could be ’employer of last resort’ to help transition

Ms van Sweeden said the UK Government had demonstrated during the pandemic that it can be the “employer of last resort”, and suggested it could take on that role again to help accelerate the move away from oil and gas.

She said: “The government, for example, could have started training up a workforce in the pandemic to think about insulating everyone’s homes.

“There are people who are too cold in their homes just now. It’s a deep concern that people will die in their homes this next coming winter.

“People do die in their homes in the UK because they’re too cold.”

However, she emphasised that her campaigning days would be over if she was elected as a councillor for the ward.

She said: “It was where I was brought up, where I had my childhood, and I’d really like to be their representative and help people there. I’d be honoured to do that.”

Following the conclusion of the case the OGA described the judgement as “clear, resounding and comprehensive support” of its strategy.

It added it remains “firmly focused on regulating and influencing the oil, gas and carbon storage industries to both secure energy supply and support the transition to net zero”.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “There will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming decades as we transition to low carbon power.

“As part of the UK’s shift towards green energy, we are already backing the decarbonisation of the oil and gas sector to support high-value jobs and safeguard the skills necessary to develop new, low carbon industries across our country.”