Aberdeen is much more than just oil and gas city

That’s the verdict of the UK Government’s advisers, the UN’s experts and the world’s major scientific bodies. Whether we like it or not, it’s a basic fact of the environment we all live in.

So, if reports of Labour ending new oil and gas licences in the North Sea are true, that is to be welcomed. But if, as seems to be the case, they remain committed to honouring the 100+ licences already agreed to by the last Conservative government, it will be too little, too late.

At the heart of this discussion is Aberdeen, a city often treated as a byword for oil and gas. And it’s easy to see why, with offices and operations from some of the biggest fossil-fuel companies in the world hosted here.

It is a big part of the local economy and everyone knows someone who works in the industry. But there is far more to our city. Beyond the headlines, it is also the home to groundbreaking renewables research and one of the most positive and progressive climate movements in the country.

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This week has seen Climate Camp Scotland return to the city with five days of workshops, debates, art and more. People from all over Scotland have gathered to live, eat, learn and plan together. This shows us a microcosm of the national conversation we all need to be having about the future: what our inevitable transition away from fossil fuels looks like, how we ensure our communities benefit from it, how to make it just and fair.

I’ve been glad to attend climate camps before – from Aberdeen to Mossmorran. It’s always inspiring to see so many people from different walks of life come together to learn with each other, to take part in rallies, to make art and music together. It’s been a privilege to speak at previous camps as an activist politician, and take part in direct action, like the occupation of the Port of Aberdeen two years ago.

This year, as before, local communities and groups are part of it all, sharing their stories of struggles against corporate greed and profiteering. The campaign against a new gas-powered power station at Peterhead and the ongoing campaign to save St Fittick’s Community Park in Torry from destruction will be central to the conversations. With Westminster giving the go-ahead for the climate-wrecking Rosebank oil field, there’s no shortage of issues that people here feel strongly about.

The fate of St Fittick’s Park is an issue very close to my heart. I’ve led a debate in Parliament about it and have supported the local community campaign to save the park. The only public green space for miles,

its future is threatened by completely inappropriate plans for a glorified greenwashing project – an industrial estate that will replace nature with concrete.

Torry has already paid a huge price for the greed of polluters. When the oil boom happened in the 1970s, much of Old Torry was torn down. Local residents were effectively cleared from their homes to make way for the port development and private companies who would go on to rake in billions from the oil industry.

The people of Torry already have to deal with Aberdeen’s waste: Torry is home to a huge waste incinerator and the sewage works, which generates the infamous “Torry pong”. They also lost their beach at Nigg Bay to the South Harbour development. Many local residents feel that Torry is being targeted because it is a disadvantaged area, easily written off and forgotten. Having been on the frontline of the fossil-fuel boom, Torry has very little to show for it.

Some people in Aberdeen got very rich during the oil boom but for others there was little benefit. We are left with an extremely unequal city where the poverty of Torry is only a stone’s throw from some of Scotland’s greatest wealth. Life expectancy in Torry is over 10 years lower than elsewhere in the city. Such inequality must not continue!

Our goal must be to ensure that the same communities who were at the forefront of change 50 years ago are properly supported to play a crucial role in building a genuine and just transition to renewables as we shift away from the fossil-fuel age.

Creating momentum for a new Aberdeen is Aberdeen University’s Just Transition Lab. Staffed by experts from a wide range of disciplines, they are doing groundbreaking work to prepare a blueprint for how Aberdeen and others can make the transition.

They recognise that a transition won’t come from one place alone, but requires economic, social, as well as political shifts. That’s why they support calls for an integrated and sustainable transport network in the north-east and new skills development for energy transition jobs.

The academics may come at the problems from a different direction from the activists taking action at Climate Camp, but it’s this diversity of perspective, experience and expertise that will be crucial to tackling the biggest social and environmental challenge of our age.

Our collective future is on the line.

The Conservatives spent 14 years rolling back on climate plans and giving away even more of our North Sea to foreign companies for drilling. With change at Westminster, we must work to ensure that they break with these disastrous policies and deliver for our planet and our communities.

With climate breakdown happening rapidly around us, the proof of Labour’s commitment to our climate will not come from the words they say, but from the action they deliver. And they need to deliver much more than they have promised so far.

Whether it is the activists and campaigners at Climate Camp in Aberdeen, the scientists and academics working for our climate, or the many grassroots organisations mobilising around the country, there are millions of us who are determined to see the climate action that has long been promised and is desperately needed.