Dismay as Rishi Sunak vows to ‘max out’ UK fossil fuel reserves
Prime minister unveils plan to authorise more than 100
new North Sea licences on visit to Scotland
Severin
Carrell, Peter Walker and Helena Horton
Mon 31 Jul
2023 22.35 BST
Rishi Sunak
has pledged to “max out” the UK’s oil and gas reserves as he revealed a new
round of intensive North Sea drilling, which experts said could be catastrophic
for the climate.
Unveiling a
plan to authorise more than 100 new North Sea licences on a visit to north-east
Scotland, the prime minister also indicated he would approve drilling at the
UK’s largest untapped reserves in the Rosebank field, which hold 500m barrels
of oil.
Speaking to
reporters on a visit to a Shell gas terminal north of Aberdeen, Sunak insisted
the plan was compatible with net zero commitments given the anticipated
part-reliance on fossil fuels for years to come, saying it was more
carbon-intensive to ship oil and gas from other countries.
But experts
said this ignored the fact that much of the UK’s imported gas comes by pipeline
and tends to be produced more cleanly than its British equivalent.
Environmental groups said Sunak’s plan would “send a wrecking ball” through
climate commitments.
Tory and
Labour MPs said Sunak’s “economically illiterate” announcement was “driving a
coach and horses” through previous promises, and warned the prime minister he
was “on the wrong side of history” and that modern voters wanted leaders who
“protect, and not threaten, our environment”.
Kicking off
a week of announcements intended to highlight the distance between the Tory
stance and Labour’s pledge to bar any new North Sea projects, Sunak criticised
the latter’s policy as “bad for energy security, bad for the British economy
[and] actually bad for the environment”.
He said:
“My view is we should max out the opportunities that we have here in the North
Sea, because that’s good for our energy security.
“It’s good
for jobs, particularly here in Scotland, but it’s also good for the climate
because the alternative is shipping energy here from halfway around the world
with three or four times the carbon emissions. So any which way you look at it,
the right thing to do is to invest into back our North Sea, and that’s what
we’re doing.”
While the
new round of licences has been in progress for many weeks, Sunak’s visit
highlight the shift towards greater scepticism over green policies since the
Conservatives narrowly won the Uxbridge byelection, thanks in part to concern
about London’s soon-to-be-expanded ultra-low emission zone.
The new
round of licences will permit drilling closer to existing projects than
previously allowed, something Sunak’s press secretary said was intended to maximise
the amount that could be extracted.
While Sunak
has insisted he remains committed to the UK’s target to reach net zero by 2050
and other green targets, his new approach has prompted concern among some Tory
MPs, who worry the party could suffer among young voters and those tempted by
the Liberal Democrats.
Chris
Skidmore, the Conservative MP who led a review for the government into net
zero, was fiercely critical of the North Sea plans, calling it “the wrong
decision at precisely the wrong time”.
He said:
“It is on the wrong side of a future economy that will be founded on renewable
and clean industries, and not fossil fuels.
“It is on
the wrong side of modern voters who will vote with their feet at the next
general election for parties that protect, and not threaten, our environment.
And it is on the wrong side of history, that will not look favourably on the
decision taken today.”
Green
groups were even more scathing. Oxfam’s climate policy adviser, Lyndsay Walsh,
said: “Extracting more fossil fuels from the North Sea will send a wrecking
ball through the UK’s climate commitments at a time when we should be investing
in a just transition to a low-carbon economy and our own abundant renewables.”
Mike
Childs, the head of policy for Friends of the Earth, said: “Climate change is
already battering the planet with unprecedented wildfires and heatwaves across
the globe. Granting hundreds of new oil and gas licences will simply pour more
fuel on the flames, while doing nothing for energy security as these fossil
fuels will be sold on international markets and not reserved for UK use.”
Ed
Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate secretary, said the proposals were “economic
illiteracy” which would “do nothing for our energy security and drive a coach
and horses through our climate commitments”.
No 10 insists
that expanded UK production of oil and gas will help keep bills lower and
reduced emissions from not having to ship supplies from overseas will help with
net zero targets.
Speaking at
the Shell terminal, Sunak said data published on Monday by the North Sea
Transition Authority, a government advisory body, showed that importing and
burning liquid petroleum gas made overseas released three to four times more
CO2 than domestically produced natural gas.
“We’re
still going to need oil and gas in 2050, a quarter of our energy needs, and
therefore the question is, where would you rather get that from?” he said.
“Would you
rather get it from here at home? Or would you rather ship it here from halfway
around the world being reliant on dictators, or coming with three or four times
the carbon emissions?”
Tessa Khan,
founder and director of the green campaign group Uplift, said it was highly
questionable whether domestic production was better for the environment than
imports.
“The UK is in the bottom half of the global table in terms of how clean its oil and production is,” she said. “The government often points to the most carbon-intensive form of imports, but the truth is that the main source of our gas imports is by pipeline and is much cleaner than UK-
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