Approving Jackdaw shows the toxic grip fossil fuel lobbyists still hold over our energy policy.
Andy Burnham, the British prime minister, faced furious backlash from environmental campaigners after his Labour government approved plans to begin drilling in the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, backed the scheme and is now under pressure from the oil industry to approve the separate Rosebank oil and gas field.
The British Government announced a new fund to funnel North Sea tax revenues into green energy schemes but the prime minister was condemned by environmental groups for the decision to back Jackdaw.
Toxic
Labour’s 2024 manifesto committed to issuing no new oil and gas licences for the North Sea. Proponents of Jackdaw and Rosebank excuse this by claiming that neither are "new" fossil fuel fields as the application was lodged ahead of the party coming to power.
Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said the decision to approve Jackdaw was “climate vandalism”.
He said: “Today’s decision by Labour is a betrayal of all of our futures. Labour has abandoned all credibility in the fight against climate change.”
Ami McCarthy, head of politics for Greenpeace UK, said: “Approving Jackdaw shows the toxic grip fossil fuel lobbyists still hold over our energy policy.
“Andy Burnham promised pragmatism, but there is nothing pragmatic about rubber-stamping a project that won’t lower energy bills, won’t boost energy security and will create just 27 full-time jobs.”
Tsunami
Campaigners against the development of North Sea oil and gas have met with government officials, held rallies, and released reports clearly outlining why leaving new oil and gas in the ground is far better for the economy than extracting it.
Leading universities, think tanks and research institutions released reports challenging the methodology of fossil fuel industry claims about the economic benefits of Jackdaw and Rosebank.
Protesters joined a Fossil Free London rally outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in reaction to the government’s announcement, made at 7am.
Robin Wells, the director of Fossil Free London, said: “This decision is salted with the tears of every Nepalese person who saw someone they loved swept away in a river tsunami and it’s stained with the blood of everyone in Valencia who died as cars afloat in mud, sewage and enough rainwater for a year collided into their bodies in streets that had become rivers.
“Although we cannot right now hear people in Australia, LA and Portugal crying in fear as their homes and worlds burn, these are the knock-on consequences of corporations that continue to drill fossil fuels and the governments that permit it, knowing the damage caused.
“Our government must not double down on madness now. They must not lap-up industry propaganda again for the next North Sea project in their in-tray. If they believe in a future that protects people's homes and safety, not endangers them, they must stop Rosebank.”
Approving Jackdaw shows the toxic grip fossil fuel lobbyists still hold over our energy policy.
Wildfires
Amanda Grimm, advocacy lead for Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, said: “Drilling the Jackdaw field will do nothing to solve our problems. It will not cut sky-high power bills for struggling households.
“It will not stop the loss of North Sea jobs. And it will not provide reliable energy supplies for the future.
“Burning the last of our gas will merely help cook the climate while ordinary folk foot the bill.
“The reality is: domestically produced or not, any new gas will add extra fuel to the fire of climate breakdown, sparking more disasters like the deadly heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts already happening here and around the world.”
Reprehensible
Katherine May, head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “The prime minister promised to rise to the climate challenge. Instead, he’s folded like a deckchair at the first sign of pressure from an industry whose ballooning bank balances depend on keeping us hooked on fossil fuels.
“The promises are the same as ever: lower bills, more jobs, greater energy security. The problem is these claims have never matched reality.
“After a summer of record heat, devastating wildfires and climate extremes across the world, ministers can no longer ignore the consequences of their climate decisions.
“Rosebank is now the real reckoning. To approve a project whose emissions dwarf Jackdaw’s would be both reprehensible and reckless. The science is clear; the choice should be too.
Breach
Kate Norgrove, WWF chief impact officer, said: “This is a disappointing decision and the government now urgently needs to show that it remains 100 per cent committed to the clean energy transition by rejecting the even more damaging Rosebank oil field.”
Tessa Khan, executive director of campaign group Uplift, said Labour’s climate credibility is “on the line now” with Rosebank becoming the defining test.
She said: “Approving it would see the government knowingly breach safe climate limits.”
Alex Sobel, the Labour MP, said: “My view hasn’t changed. Jackdaw won’t draw gas for many years. It won’t make an impact on global prices and will give mixed messages in terms of investment of both renewables and decarbonization of home heating.”
Costs
Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “The approval of Jackdaw will boost Shell’s profits while doing nothing to lower bills.
“The gas will be sold at international market prices, so households stay tied onto the same gas price rollercoaster that has caused the almost constant energy bills crisis we are living through.
“The North Sea is a basin in decline and new drilling won’t reverse that, it just prolongs the country’s exposure to the price shock profiteers’ agenda.
“Ministers should be focused on the future and the homegrown renewables, home upgrades and energy market reform that will actually cut energy costs for households.”
Wound
Caroline Rance, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “The government has chosen to put hundreds of thousands more people at risk from fuel poverty and extreme weather by approving new gas drilling.
“Giving Jackdaw the green light is guaranteeing more climate impacts like the deadly heatwaves and wildfires in the UK this summer, and the devastating floods in Nepal.
“Every extra bit of gas that stays in the ground is important, because every fraction of a degree matters to people who are suffering from the impacts of a rapidly heating world.”
She added: “The longer we rely on gas for electricity and heating, the longer we will be trapped into the cycle of sky-high energy bills and fuel poverty.
“Approving a gas field that will provide just two per cent of the UK’s gas demand is a sticking plaster over a gaping wound. We need to start pricing our energy based on cheap, abundant renewables and free ourselves from the polluting and expensive legacy of gas.
“Jackdaw must be the last new oil and gas field opened in the UK. Rosebank and any other new projects must be firmly rejected by the government. Oil and gas cannot be made compatible with our climate commitments.”
Challenge
The approval ends months of speculation about the future of the Jackdaw project, which owner Adura said could deliver around six per cent of UK North Sea gas production.
Gas is expected to start flowing by the end of the month after Ms Fahnbulleh agreed that regulator the North Sea Transition Authority could approve the scheme.
The drilling project is one of two – alongside the Rosebank oil field off Shetland – which were approved by the previous Conservative government.
Both were approved for drilling licences in June 2022, but this was overturned by the Scottish courts after a challenge from environmental campaigners.
Rope
This came after a Supreme Court ruling that developers had to account for the climate impact caused by burning fossil fuels in their planning applications.
Fresh public consultations on the proposals took place this year and closed in August, and the government gave the green light to Jackdaw on Wednesday morning.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, said: “I have been very clear that whilst we of course support net zero, we cannot have a jobless transition...that is why we have argued for this decision on Jackdaw.
"Now we urgently need to use that and invest in industries like wind turbine manufacture and refining green jet fuel. We simply cannot let go of one rope until we have hold of another.”
A decision on Rosebank, the largest untapped oil field in the North Sea, is being made separately.
This Author
Brendan Montague is an editor of The Ecologist online. This article includes content provided by the Press Association.
