Why #StopJackdaw?

For a liveable planet, we can't allow any new oil, gas and coal projects.
This means no Jackdaw. No new fields.

Burning the gas in Jackdaw would create the same amount of pollution as Ghana does in a year.

People in the UK want an affordable energy supply that doesn’t put our climate at risk. By approving Jackdaw, the UK government is failing on both counts.

Right now, most of us are locked into using fossil fuels and forced to pay extortionate heating and fuel bills, all the while knowing that the UK has the best renewable resources in Europe that could supply us with affordable, less polluting energy. Meanwhile, companies like Shell tell us – and our government – that change isn’t possible (yet), while they continue to rip us off.

If Jackdaw goes ahead, it will only meet around 1- 2% of UK gas demand over its lifetime. It wouldn’t produce any quantity of gas until 2025 and production would drop by almost 60% within four years of its peak in 2026.

Burning the gas in Jackdaw, though, would create the same amount of pollution as half of Scotland’s annual emissions or more than Ghana’s entire annual emissions.



Our government is refusing to stand up to the oil and gas industry. And we're paying the cost of their inaction.

Instead of phasing out expensive fossil fuels, it is looking to open up new fields, like Jackdaw, that will do nothing to lower bills or help our energy security. All they will do is make more money for oil and gas companies, who are profiteering while causing the climate crisis. Last year, Shell made profits of £14.2 billion. Its CEO made £6.2 million.

Shell won’t stop until the UK government stops them. Freeing us from fossil fuels and moving to an affordable, less polluting energy supply requires this government to say no to companies like Shell and no to new developments like Jackdaw.

"If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal."

If we want a liveable climate – meaning temperatures rise no more than 1.5°C – there can be no new investment in oil, gas or coal. A safe climate means no Jackdaw.

Last year, the head of the influential International Energy Agency, Dr Fatih Birol, warned: "If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year."

When the latest climate assessment by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released last summer, UN chief, António Guterres, called it a “code red for humanity” that should “sound a death knell for fossil fuels”.

Already, the amount of oil and gas in the UK’s existing fields will – if we burn it all – produce emissions greater than our share of what scientists say is safe for the planet. The world cannot afford to open new fossil fuel frontiers. For the UK, this starts with rejecting Cambo and the other North Sea fields. 

We are currently way off track to limit warming to 1.5°C, which is deemed the safest, liveable temperature rise still possible. Burning the fossil fuels in existing projects will push us past this target. Adding new developments, like Jackdaw, will push us closer to parts of our world becoming uninhabitable.

Governments must begin phasing out fossil fuel infrastructure now, including the UK, which is the second biggest oil and gas producer in Europe. We cannot let them approve any more oil and gas projects, including Jackdaw. 




Approving Jackdaw won't lower bills or make us 'energy indepedent.' The best way to lower bills, provide reliable and protect the climate is to insulate homes and supercharge renewable energy.

Jackdaw’s gas will do nothing to lower energy costs for UK households. The price we pay for our energy is determined by global markets, a fact this government admits. Increasing production in the North Sea will have no impact on the price as it is set globally. Jackdaw is in the top ten biggest gas fields we have left in the North Sea, but still much too small to impact the global price of gas. In fact, there’s no guarantee energy bills would be impacted even if we drained the North Sea of every drop of oil and ounce of gas.

It’s Shell’s gas, not ours. Jackdaw’s gas belongs to Shell and it can choose to sell it wherever it can get the best price. It doesn’t have to sell it cheaply to us, or even to the UK at all. Just as we entered the gas crisis at the end of last year, the UK exported unusually large amounts of gas for the time of year because the companies that own it could get a better price elsewhere.

Approving new fields will just make us more dependent on expensive, polluting oil and gas for longer. Our window for climate action is closing. We can't afford any delays.

‍Opening up new oil and gas fields means companies, like Shell, will carry on controlling our energy supply for years to come. It will see us locked into a dependency on an expensive, polluting energy source for decades longer than necessary. Shell tells us it has a vital role to play in the UK’s changing energy system but, in fact, its need to profit from oil and gas is what is holding us back.

If we want a supply of affordable energy that doesn’t destroy our climate we need to call out their lies and demand an end to new oil and gas developments and a rapid scale up of affordable, less polluting renewable energy.



A reason for hope

We know why we had to stop Cambo: it was a climate disaster in the making that would have seen us shoot past safe climate limits. And our success means that #StopCambo offers a blueprint for how to stop new oil and gas developments.

In just a few short months, we turned a little known, offshore project into a movement-wide campaign to end new oil and gas production in the UK. Together, we brought the plans for Cambo to a screeching halt. Neither the oil and gas industry, nor the UK governmennt expected this. 

From occupying UK government offices in Edinburgh, to challenging the CEO of Shell on-stage at COP, and delivering a petition on behalf of 80,000 people to Downing Street, we’ve proved we’re not going away.

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