Gas extraction on Forth should be a "non-starter" says group

WWF Scotland has branded an energy firm’s plans to extract gas from under the Firth of Forth as “irresponsible”.

Cluff Natural Resources plans to build the UK's first deep offshore underground coal gasification (UGC) plant.

The firm said it estimated up to 335 million tonnes of coal lay under the seabed from which gas can be extracted - enough to power millions of homes.

The process of gasification involves drilling horizontally into a seam and then injecting air and oxygen to produce syngas - a mixture of combustible gases which include hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and carbon dioxide.

But WWF said the move should be a “non-starter.”

WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: "We need to see Scotland and the rest of the UK move toward an electricity system that is largely free of polluting fossil fuels.

“Plans to 'burn' coal under the Firth of Forth will not deliver that aim and should therefore be a complete non-starter.

“In a worst case scenario, proposals such as this one could even extend our use of fossil fuels, locking us into a high carbon world."

In a worst case scenario, proposals such as this one could even extend our use of fossil fuels, locking us into a high carbon world - Lang Banks

“Just over a week ago, scientists from the United Nations issued their latest predictions of the growing threat from global climate change and the need to be rapidly phasing out our use of fossil fuels.

“Since the developers themselves have admitted that carbon dioxide will be emitted by their plans, from a climate change perspective, this scheme is nothing short of irresponsible."

Cluff chairman and chief executive Algy Cluff said: “The emerging UCG industry has a significant role to play in unlocking the UK's most abundant indigenous energy resource which, with the imminent closure of the last deep coal mines, is now otherwise effectively beyond reach.”