Every Scot subsidises oil firms operating in the north sea by £190 each year, according to new research published by the Scottish Greens yesterday.

The Greens found privateers benefit from more than £1 billion in tax breaks every year from the UK government.

And Green Yes, the Green Party’s campaign for a Yes vote in the independence referendum, says the money could deliver more renewables, additional childcare, 25,000 extra teachers, and 28,000 extra nurses.

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said: “As Scotland debates its future, discussion over oil has tended to focus on extracting every last drop and burning it, when we know we simply can’t afford to do that for economic and environmental reasons.

“What has also been overlooked is the huge subsidy we’re all giving the big oil companies. Now that figure is out in the open we should consider the logic of continuing such massive tax breaks.”

Patrick Harvie said an independent Scotland could position itself as a world leader in offshore decommissioning and publicly owned renewables.

“If Scotland remains part of the UK we will struggle to assert control; with a Yes we can build a genuinely sustainable economy, reducing our reliance on a declining industry and instead growing the clean technology of the future.”

The Green Yes campaign notes that the £1 billion figure is “based on a combination of government and industry estimates but very limited data.”

The campaign said the entire UK Continental Shelf tax break was worth around £1.15 billion each year and placed the Scottish proportion at roughly £1.05 billion, based on the commonly used 90:10 geographical share of North Sea oil.