ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners say the Scottish government has a duty to speak out against the development of a new oilfield near Shetland.

Oxfam Scotland raised serious concerns today about the ecological impact of the proposed Cambo development and the Scottish energy sector’s continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Its alarm came as an Oxfam International report revealed that using land alone to achieve global net-zero emissions by 2050 would require at least 1.6 billion hectares of new forests — a land mass equivalent to more than all of the farmland on Earth.

The report argues that global carbon-reduction plans rely on virtually unproven new technologies and on a level of land use that is implausible and that would lead to mass hunger and displacement of people around the world.

If given the go-ahead, the Cambo site — located in waters about 80 miles north-west of Shetland — could yield as many as 255 million barrels of oil over its lifetime,  Oxfam Scotland said.

The charity estimates that counteracting the 132 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions this could produce would require an area of land some 1.5 times the size of Scotland.

Oxfam Scotland head Jamie Livingstone said that the British government must intervene to “stop its climate credibility going up in smoke” in the run-up to this year’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, and that the Scottish government had a duty to ensure that Tory ministers take action.

“All of our lives and futures depend on the world’s biggest polluters quickly, drastically and genuinely slashing their emissions, phasing out fossil fuels and investing in clean energy and supply chains,” he said.

“Instead, what we’re seeing is too many net-zero strategies being used as smokescreens to mask dirty behaviour: promising unrealistic carbon-removal schemes in order to justify the continued plundering of our planet.”

A Scottish government spokesman said it was committed to becoming a net-zero economy by 2045 and that any support for North Sea oil and gas businesses was conditional upon such firms contributing to a sustainable and inclusive energy transition.

“The oil and gas sector can play a positive role in Scotland’s energy transition, helping to design the diverse energy system we need for the future,” he said.