Energy giant SSE AGM protests over fossil fuel ‘greenwash’ & fuel poverty

Energy giant SSE faced protests outside its AGM in Perth today from people concerned about the company’s role in driving climate breakdown and fuel poverty (18/7/24).

The protests were prompted by SSE’s plans to build a new gas burning power station at Peterhead, despite the existing plant at that site already being Scotland’s biggest climate polluter. Friends of the Earth Scotland highlighted the fact that, despite the company’s marketing and green image, 60% of SSE’s energy generation capacity comes from burning fossil fuels.

Protesters spoke to shareholders attending the AGM urging them to challenge the company’s plans to build new fossil fuel power stations and force prepayment meters into homes.

Other activists disrupted the AGM from the inside, interrupting the Board’s address and imploring SSE to drop their plans for more gas burning developments.

Fuel Poverty Action, who also organised the demonstration, focused on the energy giant’s £2.4billion in profits last year whilst a third of households were forced into fuel poverty in Scotland. SSE continues to force-fit pre-payment meters on people in energy debt which ultimately causes people who use the least amount of energy to pay the most for it.

Over 40 climate groups recently wrote to the Scottish Government urging them to reject SSE’s planning application to build a new gas power station at Peterhead.

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

“SSE are getting rich from burning gas to make electricity, and the company is plotting even more climate damage with its plans for a new gas power station at Peterhead. We’re at their AGM to tell the company’s shareholders that there is no future in fossil fuels.

“The Peterhead proposals would guarantee demand for gas, meaning that Scottish homes will spend the next 25 years paying sky high energy bills which are set by the international price of fossil fuels. Building new gas infrastructure would be a terrible deal for the Scottish public, lock in climate pollution and undermine the transition to renewable energy.

“SSE cannot continue to try and greenwash the fact that the majority of its energy generation capacity comes from 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.”

Lucia Harrington, Organising Lead at Fuel Poverty Action, who was also involved in the protest today, said:

“SSE is a company that continues to profit from people’s poverty and continues to force-fit prepayment meters onto people in energy debt. This behaviour is what has led to hundreds of preventable deaths in Scotland and we are here to hold them to account.”