This week a report from the UN Environment Programme concluded that holding global temperatures to a 1.5C warming limit – the centrepiece commitment of the Paris climate agreement – is no longer achievable. If the disastrous consequences of a significant overshoot are to be mitigated, it argued, governments must start delivering the short-term actions to meet long-term targets on reducing fossil fuel consumption. Disappointingly, Andy Burnham and his energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, took a different view of short-term priorities on Wednesday.
Before the November Cop summit, where regaining lost momentum on climate action will be crucial, their decision to approve new drilling in the Jackdaw gasfield sent a dismal signal. The prime minister justified it as a pragmatic move “at a time when people are really struggling”. But the pragmatic arguments don’t stack up.
Going ahead with Jackdaw will have no impact on bills this winter and little in the longer run. It will deliver only a small number of jobs for a very limited period. Tax revenues from new drilling will be substantially negated by the various concessions and breaks enjoyed by the oil and gas industry.
Claims that Jackdaw will enhance the UK’s national energy security are hugely overblown, given that it will satisfy a mere 2% of national demand. The country’s heavy reliance on natural gas imports will remain unaltered. Mr Burnham would doubtless have preferred not to be landed with the judgment call on either Jackdaw or the much larger Rosebank oil and gas field (on which an announcement has yet to be made).
Both were already in the licensing system, having been approved by Rishi Sunak as he sought a dividing line with Labour. A successful legal challenge meant the final decision fell in the present prime minister’s lap. On Jackdaw at least, Mr Burnham appears to have judged that political expediency, particularly in Scotland, was best served by waving it through.
A failure by governments to invest gamechanging sums in the green transition has made the politics of net zero more fraught. The recent Tory byelection victory in Aberdeen South followed a campaign focused on reviving oil and gas production in the North Sea. One of the first acts of Scottish Labour’s new leader, Michael Marra, has been to back both the Rosebank and Jackdaw developments.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
