Nicola Sturgeon Patrick Harvie Ash Regan Scotland Norway stars record Forbes Party Strategy If and Nicola Sturgeon Patrick Harvie Ash Regan Scotland Norway

SNP coalition with Greens 'could be destroyed if next FM backslides on North Sea oil and gas'

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Patrick Harvie has signalled the Greens could quit their coalition deal with the SNP if the next first minister backslides on opposing new oil and gas drilling.The Scottish Greens co-leader said any shift towards supporting further extraction in the North Sea would be a “retrograde” and “damaging” step.Under Nicola Sturgeon, the Nationalists have notably moved away from backing new drilling projects - such as the controversial Cambo oil field, eventually outright opposed by the outgoing FM.And in the Scottish Government’s new draft Energy Strategy, published this year, it proposes a “presumption against” new North Sea developments - although licensing is ultimately reserved to Westminster.Humza Yousaf, the SNP establishment favourite, has vowed to continue Sturgeon’s eco policies on a “just transition” away from fossil fuels and wants to keep the Greens on board.However, rival candidates Kate Forbes and Ash Regan have both suggested they would slow down the move away from oil and gas, with Forbes saying oil profits should be used to create a sovereign wealth fund like Norway.Harvie’s party signed the Bute House power-sharing agreement with the Nats in 2021 and claims credit for shifting Sturgeon away from a stance backing “maximum extraction” of North Sea oil.Speaking to the Record ahead of his party's conference in Clydebank on Saturday, the Scottish Green MSP agreed his party couldn’t credibly stay in government with their principles intact if the next FM reversed that shift.Harvie said: “That’s probably a fair comment.

The Greens are very clear that no new oil and gas licensing should be granted.“We should be winding down and revoking some of the undeveloped fields that have been granted licences but not yet in

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