Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she wishes she did more to hasten Scotland's transition away from oil and gas, despite the wave of job losses currently hitting the North-east of Scotland.
Ms Sturgeon is widely recognised as the architect of the Scottish Government's 'presumption against oil and gas' policy, which has been the subject of intense criticism since it was announced in January 2023.
The energy sector said the tone knocked confidence and discouraged investment in the UKCS - and it has since paved the way for the UK Government, under Labour, to ban future licences and tax the industry at a crippling rate of 78%.
However, in her memoir 'Frankly', which is published today, Ms Sturgeon is unrepentant - and instead insists she should have gone further to accelerate the 'just transition'.
"Looking back, I find it astonishing how little climate change featured in the debate at the time (2015)," she said.
"As recently at ten years ago, apart form the Greens, all parties were committed to maximum exploration of North Sea resources, even with abundant evidence of the environmental impact of fossil fuels.
"I wish now that the price shock of 2015 had prompted us to do more, sooner, to prepare for the challenges involved in making a just transition away from oil and gas to renewable sources of energy."
The position advocated by Ms Sturgeon in the government's draft energy strategy made the case against further exploration in the North Sea on environmental grounds, but did not take account of the fact that even maximum exploration of the North Sea would only yield around half of the 13-15 billion barrels of oil and gas that the UK requires on its net zero pathway.
The gap is increasingly being filled with imported oil and gas - including LNG form Qatar and the United States - which emits up to four times more carbon, according to the North Sea Transition Authority.
Critics at the time described it as a presumption again Scottish oil and gas, but not oil and gas in general - and in the period since, UK energy imports have soared, costing the country £120billion according to the most recent figures, which equates to nearly 4% of UK GDP leaving the economy.