Rosebank oil and gas: a Tory-Labour climate crime

In 2022 the Government's official advisers the Climate Change Committee said that the UK should not develop any new oil and gas fields. In 2023 it announced publicly that such expansion "is not in line with the UK's net zero commitments". Instead of accepting this expert advice Rishi Sunak, with Labour's approval, is allowing a vast new oil and gas field in the North Sea.

Owned by Norwegian, Canadian and Israeli businesses, but supported by £3.75 billion of UK taxpayer subsidies, the Rosebank field would produce 245 million barrels of oil between 2026 and 2031, and a massive amount of gas as a by-product. In doing so it would emit more than 2,000,000,000 kilos of air-polluting, climate-damaging carbon dioxide, and even more over its expected lifetime.

The Government claims this is for energy security - but the oil is not destined for Britain. Rosebank is simply a foreign commercial enterprise whose oil will be sold to the highest bidders on the world market. And to run Rosebank, renewable energy from windfarms in the region will be diverted from its proper purpose of powering UK homes and businesses.

Joining the Green Party in condemning the Prime Minister's decision were MPs from all parties including Conservative Chris Skidmore, who as a Minister signed our country's net zero commitments into law. He resigned from the Conservatives in protest, saying that he could not support "the extreme voices who regard net zero as an imposition".

More than 400 UK religious leaders including Anglican and Catholic Bishops have written to the Prime Minister calling for "moral and international leadership" to stop Rosebank going ahead. Green MP Caroline Lucas describes the Government's action as a climate crime, and "the greatest act of environmental vandalism in my lifetime". Suffolk Coastal MP Thérèse Coffey is a Rosebank supporter.

The Green Party would revoke the Rosebank licence.