On this trade-off, the public in England and Wales are similarly divided to the public in Scotland, believing it’s more important for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea to continue as long as possible than for Britain to meet its net zero targets by 50% to 34%.
The distinct difference between the views of Scottish Labour voters and those elsewhere in Britain are still apparent, however, with Scots who backed Labour in 2024 believing it’s more important to prioritise extraction by 52% to 34%, while the party’s English and Welsh voters think it’s more important to reach net zero by a near-identical margin of 52% to 33%.
Do Scots think it should just be Scotland’s oil?
Given Britain’s North Sea oil and gas developments are primarily located off the coast of Scotland, there has been a long-standing demand from some Scots for all the revenues generated to be spent on Scotland, with the SNP in the 1970s famously using the slogan “It’s Scotland’s Oil”.
Indeed, six in ten Scots (60%) believe that public North Sea oil money should be exclusively spent on Scotland, roughly twice the 29% who feel it should be able to be spent across the whole UK.
The question’s link to the idea of Scottish independence can somewhat be seen in who supports the idea, with 85% of those intending to vote SNP and 74% of supporters of the also pro-independence Greens doing so, but falling to 49-52% of those planning to back Labour or the Lib Dems, as well as just 38% of Reform UK supporters and only 26% of Conservatives.