Objection to Peterhead gas project
Friends of the Earth Scotland formal objection to the Peterhead gas burning power station with carbon capture.
This objection was submitted to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit in July 2025.
The Peterhead gas burning project poses a significant risk to achieving Scotland’s legally enshrined 2045 net zero target and carbon budgets.
This representation is in addition to our previous objection, dated 12th May 2022.
In this document Friends of the Earth Scotland outlines the following concerns about the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment and approval of the project:
- High risk of failure to meet Scotland’s legal climate target of net zero by 2045
- High impact on other sectors of the Scottish economy, requiring more rapid decarbonisation to allow for emissions from this project
- Lack of plan from the Scottish Government to balance emissions beyond 2045
- Risk to Scotland’s international obligations under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement
- Underestimation of the upstream emissions impact from the project
- Unverified claims about the efficacy of the capture plant, providing overly optimistic capture rates
- Dependence on third party applications for transportation and storage of captured carbon, which cannot be cross referenced
- Concerns over pipeline safety