SNP ministers have been accused of “climate hypocrisy” after giving the go-ahead for a new, gas-fired, power station – a decision that was branded a “catastrophic failure” by environmental campaigners.

Developers SSE Thermal and Equinor insist that their planned, power station at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, will be equipped with carbon capture technology.

This will help the proposed, 900 megawatt MW facility remove the CO2 from its emissions, they added.

A website for the project stressed that “flexible and efficient gas-fired generation will continue to play a critical role in the transition to a net-zero future” adding this would supply “reliable backup power” while “complementing renewable energy”.

However, environmental campaigners claimed that granting consent for the project showed Scotland’s political leaders were “trapped in a fossil fuel fantasy where every new project is somehow sold as climate progress”.

The application for the power station was consented on the same day that Holyrood debated…