Chameleon Magazine

🏗️💷For years we were told that protecting oil and gas jobs was a national priority. Then somehow, under the Conservatives’ watch, around 70,000 jobs disappeared from the sector while Westminster signed off on nuclear projects in England with a price tag approaching £87 billion. 💸⚛️

Apparently losing tens of thousands of skilled energy workers was just one of those unfortunate side effects that nobody in London noticed between ribbon cuttings and press conferences.

Meanwhile, in North East Scotland, where many of those jobs were based, workers were left wondering where exactly the “plan” part of the energy plan was.

🔋 A Just Transition… or Just a Transition for Everyone Else?

The irony is hard to miss.

While critics endlessly claim Scotland lacks ambition, the SNP Scottish Government’s Just Transition Fund has committed £500 million towards supporting energy jobs, skills, and economic development in the North East.

Half a billion pounds might not solve every challenge facing the industry, but at least it acknowledges a basic reality: when workers are asked to transition, someone should probably invest in the transition.

A radical concept, apparently.

Because telling highly skilled engineers, technicians and offshore workers that they’ll be “retrained sometime in the future” isn’t a strategy—it’s a PowerPoint presentation.

One side seems to have looked at energy workers and seen an investment.

The other looked at them and saw a statistic.

🔥 Challenges 🔥

If 70,000 energy jobs can disappear with barely a political whisper, what does that say about the priorities of those making the decisions?

Should governments be investing more directly in protecting skilled workers during the energy transition?

Or are ordinary workers expected to absorb all the risks while politicians pose for the photo opportunities? 📸🤔

Drop your thoughts in the blog comments. We want the facts, the fury, the sarcasm and the solutions.

👇 Like, comment and share if you think energy workers deserve more than promises and press releases.

🏆 The best comments will be featured in the next issue of the magazine.