This is it: we are on the brink of stopping new oil and gas drilling for good – a historic turning point that we’ve built every step towards. For the first time, the UK government is seriously examining the harm that new North Sea oil and gas drilling will do to our climate.
The government has paused approving new fields while it examines how to regulate new drilling - and it is asking us, the public, what we think should happen. Now is the critical moment to demand the decisive action we urgently need to tackle catastrophic climate change.
Click here to have your say: No new drilling
What’s going on?
Thanks to the recent Finch legal ruling in the Supreme Court, and the brilliant campaigning from Weald Action Group and Friends of the Earth that led to it, the UK government can no longer ignore the huge climate pollution caused by burning the oil and gas from North Sea fields. The government must now take these emissions (called "Scope 3") into account before approving any new drilling.
As a result, the UK government is now consulting on how these emissions should be factored into the environmental assessment process for new oil and gas projects. This consultation will effectively define the government’s regulatory approach to the billions of barrels of oil and gas left in the North Sea and the catastrophic impact they could have on our climate.
New North Sea drilling sites – areas that have been licensed for drilling but have yet to be developed – hold as many as 4 billion barrels of oil, which if burned would release 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
To put this into perspective, here’s what 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 looks like:
- It's more CO2 emissions than the 1.5 billion people living in the continent of Africa produce in a year.
- It’s more CO2 than would be produced running 15 coal-fired power stations from now until 2050
- It would take the UK's 28 million households over 30 years to emit this much CO2 at current rates.
- It’s the same amount of CO2 emissions as the 149 lowest-emitting countries in 2023 (out of a total of 208 countries)
- UK forests would take almost a century to store this amount of CO2 at recent rates of carbon sequestration. However, the ability of UK forests to store carbon is expected to fall – almost halving by 2040 – meaning that in practice it would take much longer.
The UK government will conduct two public consultations on offshore oil and gas over the next six months:
- Consultation 1: 30th Oct - 8th Jan. This consultation focuses on how the massive emissions from the billions of barrels of oil and gas left in the North Sea should be taken into account when deciding whether or not to approve newfields.
- Consultation 2: Timing tbd - expected to start early 2025. This consultation is likely to focus on how the government can enact its commitment to end oil and gas licensing and a broader transformation of the North Sea.
What can you do?
We are only at this pivotal moment thanks to the dedicated pressure from people like you. But the oil and gas lobby will stop at nothing to protect its profits. Our job is to ensure that the government hears loud and clear that tackling climate change means stopping new drilling. No new oil and gas fields are compatible with limiting warming to 1.5C, and we now have a unique opportunity to end new oil and gas field approvals.
If we create enough pressure, we could see the UK take the decisive step of moving away from fossil fuels. It’s hard to believe but this moment is very much within our grasp. This could inspire global momentum to phase out fossil fuels and create a cleaner, fairer future for everyone.
Over the next few months, we need to make it impossible to ignore that people want climate action, affordable energy and a clean energy future for the North Sea now - the first step is to stop new drilling and speed up the energy transition.
- You can have your say in the UK’s oil and gas decision and call for an end to new oil and gas by adding your name here.
- Stay in touch about further ways to take action in the coming months by subscribing to our newsletter here.