The British Government gives the green light to the largest oil field in the North Sea: "It will help us secure ourselves against tyrants like Putin"
The British Government has given the green light to the largest oil field yet to be exploited in the North Sea. The announcement comes a week after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak partially renounced Boris Johnson's commitments to meet the goal of “zero emissions” by 2050.
It is estimated that in total, the Rosebank oil field, 130 kilometers from the Shetland Islands in Scotland, could produce up to 500 million barrels of oil (which once burned would emit the CO2 equivalent of 56 coal-fired power plants in a year). .
The new wells will be capable of producing 8% of the oil for domestic consumption in the British Isles in 2030. Commercial exploitation will be carried out by the companies Equinor and Suncor and Siccar Point Energy.
“As we transition to renewables, we are still going to need oil and gas, and it makes sense for us to use our own resources,” he said.. Rishi Sunak. “Such a project will help us insure ourselves against tyrants like Putin.”
The decision has been criticized as “frustrating” by Chief Minister and Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Humza Yousaf and criticized as “morally obscene” by the Green Party.. Greta Thunberg joined the “Stop Rosebank” campaign and warned the British Government that the hundreds of new licenses for oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea clash head-on with the goal of “zero emissions.”
“Rishi Sunak has shown once again that he wants to put the profits of big companies ahead of the interests of the people,” said Philip Evans, spokesperson for Greenpeace UK.. “We know that dependence on fossil fuels is terrible for our energy security, for the cost of living and for the climate.”
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Tessa Khan, head of the Uplift group, announced her intention to take the approval of the Rosebank oilfield to the courts, while Hannah Martin, of Green New Deal Rising, accused Sunak of “climate vandalism” and recalled how the Labor Party did not has committed to reversing this decision.
Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho, however, defended the new licenses in the North Sea: “We are not going to play politics with our energy security.”. The UK needs to be pragmatic and recognize that we will need gas and oil to achieve a quarter of our energy by 2050. “We cannot close our industry, depend on foreign regimes and lose 200,000 jobs.”
The news was meanwhile celebrated by the Chamber of Commerce of Aberdeen, the oil capital of Scotland. “This is going to be a shot in the arm for the UK energy sector,” predicted the Chamber's chief executive, Russell Borthwick.. “Rosebank will be a major contribution to energy security in the UK and Europe, and will contribute to the creation of hundreds of jobs in Scotland.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has, however, received strong criticism within his own party after announcing the delay until 2035 of the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and the delay in replacing gas heaters with heat pumps. , as well as the reversal of measures ranging from home isolation to recycling.
Former Under Secretary of State for the Environment Zakc Goldsmith has accused Sunak of breaking consensus and “turning climate change into a culture war weapon”. The former president of the Glasgow Climate Summit (COP26), Alok Sharma, announced for his part that he will not run again as an MP for the Conservative Party due to his serious disagreements with Sunak's environmental policy.