The British Energy Security Strategy: Paving The Way For New Oil & Gas Drilling
Today the UK government released their British Energy Security Strategy, their plan to make the UK less dependent on imported energy in the face of the war in Ukraine and to lower soaring energy bills. You can read the government press release of the strategy here. The strategy fails on all counts. It fails to lower bills, secure energy independence, or protect the climate. It's an absolute train wreck that sets us well on the path past 1.5C.
The UK has doubled down on new oil and gas drilling, announcing a new round of oil and gas licenses and a process to speed up the approval of new projects. Just three days after the IPCC issued its starkest warning yet on the climate crisis, the UK government is moving to green light new drilling. This strategy is a betrayal to the millions in the UK facing soaring energy bills and the billions facing the impacts of a warmer world.
The IPCC report warned that we have a very narrow window to limit warming to 1.5C. Emissions have to peak by 2025. Existing and planned fossil fuel infrastructure will push us past the limits for a liveable climate. But the good news is that we know what needs to be done and it can be done. We need to stop all expansion of oil and gas (no new fields), and rapidly scale up renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Unfortunately, the UK's energy strategy, released today will do none of this. Apart from announcing more oil and gas drilling, it made big bets on nuclear, fails to invest nearly anything in energy efficiency, home insulation or does little to remove the indefensible blocks placed in the way of onshore wind. You can read a good analysis of the strategy's many flaws here.
With regards to what the strategy says on oil and gas, here are the key points:
- A new oil and gas licensing round: The government has announced plans to launch another licensing round for new oil and gas fields in the autumn. Not much is known about this new round yet but we know it will take into account the government's forthcoming climate compatibility checkpoint - the greenwashing exercise that's meant to rubber stamp new fossil fuels during the middle of the climate crisis. To limit warming to 1.5C. we have to peak emissions globally by 2025. Most of these fields won't likely come online until well after 2030. No new oil and gas fields are compatible with a liveable climate and these fields will do nothing to lower bills or improve energy security.
- Accelerating field approvals. The UK has announced the creation of a new taskforce, the Gas and Oil New Project Regulatory Accelerators designed to ‘’take years off the development’’ of complex projects. There's a small problem here. Regulations on projects exist to protect the public purse and the environment, including the UK’s net zero goal. These regulations are already weak, not accounting for scope 3 emissions for example (the emissions from actually burning the oil and gas), but they ultimately exist to protect the public interest. Rolling them back would be environmentally and economically damaging. That said, it’s unclear what, if any, substantial change this will make to the regulatory process given that the legislative mandate is already to maximise economic recovery of oil and gas and that many of the barriers to accelerated development are commercial, rather than regulatory. The lead in time is driven by commercial considerations, the availability of rigs and so on. Speeding up approval will do little to speed up production.
- A commitment to electrifying offshore production (and lowering the emissions of platforms). The UK wants oil and gas extraction in the UK to run off of renewable energy. This will consume a huge amount of energy. The amount of power used to drill for oil and gas is nearly equal to the power generated by offshore wind in the UK (enough power to generate electricity for every household in Wales). If producers electrify their operations, all that energy is just used to get expensive and polluting fossil fuels out of the ground when it could actually be lowering bills and emissions.
- Pledges on North Sea low-carbon tech. These are mainly just reheated commitments from the North Sea Transition Deal published last year, which focuses on building UK capacity in carbon capture and decarbonising oil and gas production. This is all concerned with maintaining the oil and gas industry's social licence to operate and doesn’t address the emissions from actually burning fossil fuels, energy security or cost. The one exception is hydrogen, the target for which has doubled. “At least” half the target will be green hydrogen, with no specific commitment to the oil and gas industry’s favourite blue hydrogen.
We'll share more analysis as the detail on the strategy comes in. While today was a massive missed chance, the fight for a liveable climate is far from over.
We're getting ready to announce some big plans next week. In the meantime, please share our response to the energy strategy, outlining three steps that would actually make our energy cheaper and more secure. Thanks!
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