The British government has approved gas drilling off the Scottish coast, despite objections from environmental groups. According to the government, the drilling benefits the United Kingdom's energy security in internationally uncertain times. But opponents point out that the drilling conflicts with climate goals.
The British Prime Minister Burnham wants to be pragmatic. Energy prices are high and people need to be able to heat their homes this winter. And because international energy markets are unpredictable due to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the UK is better off extracting fossil fuels itself, from its own soil, in the North Sea, he reasons.
This political justification may sound logical, but it is very controversial. With his decision, Burnham breaks Labour's 2023 promise not to open new oil and gas fields in the North Sea. The party had promised instead to invest in jobs in the sustainable energy sector and to meet the agreed climate goals.
Revenue
The Jackdaw gas field, for which the government has now given the green light, is located about 240 kilometers from the Scottish city of Aberdeen. According to the industry, the gas field can heat 1.4 million homes and the drilling can help preserve hundreds of jobs in the fossil fuel industry. The field could supply about 6 percent of British gas demand.
Besides Jackdaw, the British government is also considering approval of another project in the North Sea: the Rosebank oil field, about 130 kilometers west of the Shetland Islands. This is the largest unused oil field in the United Kingdom and could yield much more. A decision on this controversial project has not yet been made but is expected soon.
The permit for these two gas and oil fields, Jackdaw and Rosebank, has been the subject of discussion for years. The projects were approved in 2022 by the then Conservative government, but a judge called the government back. Reason: insufficient consideration was given to the climate consequences of exploiting new fossil sources. Now new environmental research is said to have been conducted and taken into account.
According to gas and oil producer Adura, which wants to extract the gas and oil, the climate damage from this project is limited. But Greenpeace and other environmental organizations disagree. Opening new fields contradicts the Paris Climate Agreement. To meet the goals agreed there, the world must quickly reduce oil and gas use.
The United Kingdom was in 2019 the first major economy in the world to legally commit to being climate neutral by 2050. Until then, a transition period applies in which oil and gas are gradually phased out. But opinions differ on how that should happen.
Gas import
Currently, about 63 percent of British gas is imported. As a result, international conflicts, such as around the Strait of Hormuz, and the ban on Russian gas, directly affect British energy prices. The British gas price is already twice as high as last year, and the expectation is that the price will rise further this winter.
To soften criticism of the new drilling somewhat, the British government wants to invest the tax revenues from the gas field in sustainable energy. The British Finance Minister wants to announce a new Energy Wealth Fund next week - inspired by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.
Norway has been putting its oil and gas revenues into a national fund for decades, which is now worth about 2.4 trillion dollars and is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
The British fund will start with 2 billion pounds, about 2.4 billion euros, of government money and must be supplemented with tax revenues from gas extraction at Jackdaw. This should pay for green energy projects. In this way, the government also hopes to address climate concerns within the Labour Party.
Politically charged
Prime Minister Burnham knows that high energy prices occupy people's minds. According to polls, the high cost of living tops the list of concerns for the British. If Burnham is seen as the prime minister who does nothing about high energy prices, he can forget about his re-election.
At the same time, climate is increasingly lower on that list. The political debate about being climate neutral as a kingdom is also changing: right-wing opposition parties like the Conservatives and Reform are increasingly openly questioning the high costs of the energy transition for the average Brit.
Burnham therefore defends drilling for fossil fuels as pragmatic: people are struggling to pay their bills, so we must responsibly make maximum use of our own energy sources.
Oil and gas will still be needed in the coming decades before we can fully rely on sustainable energy, he writes in a press release. Burnham emphasizes that his government remains committed to the goal of achieving zero emissions by 2050.