In an effort to achieve energy independence, Britain announced on Monday that it would issue hundreds of additional oil and gas licenses in the North Sea, defying appeals from environmental activists and the UN to halt the development of new fossil fuel projects.
In his speech, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reaffirmed the government’s commitment to eradicating net carbon emissions by the year 2050 and promised to invest 20 billion pounds ($26 billion) in carbon capture and storage initiatives.
The package will be officially unveiled in Scotland by Sunak, who asserted that even when Britain hits its net zero goal, fossil fuels will still be needed in the country. He said that domestic oil and gas production is preferable to relying on foreign leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine caused global energy prices to surge.
Sunak said in a statement, “We have all seen how Putin has exploited and militarized energy, interrupting supplies and halting progress in nations all across the world. More than ever, it’s crucial to increase our energy security and take advantage of our independence to provide British families and companies with more reasonably priced, clean energy.
As his Conservative Party battles to win over voters despite indications from polls that the party will likely suffer a catastrophic defeat in the upcoming general election, Sunak is under pressure to reverse costly environmental commitments.
However, after a summer of record-breaking high temperatures, drought, and flooding attributed to man-made climate change, U.N. experts and environmental activists are urging governments all over the world to expedite the transition away from fossil fuels. Large volumes of carbon dioxide, which is the primary cause of global warming, are released when oil and gas are used to power machinery, factories, and electricity generation plants.
In a time when they ought to be stepping up their efforts, governments are reversing their pledges to reduce glasshouse gas emissions, according to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Last month in New York, Guterres told reporters that the issue was not just with fossil fuel emissions, but with fossil fuels in general.
“The answer is simple: the world must phase out fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner, working to leave oil, coal, and gas in the ground where they belong, and massively increasing investment in renewable energy in a just transition.”
Midway through the 1970s, Britain started to pump oil and gas from the North Sea, which was a significant source of employment and tax money, notably in Scotland. However, since roughly 2000, production has been falling, making industrial support a significant political concern.
In order to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the British government has committed to reducing net carbon emissions by 68% by the end of the decade. To achieve net zero, glasshouse gas emissions must be limited to what can be removed from the atmosphere naturally or artificially.
However, the government’s climate experts claim that the rate of advancement is “worryingly slow.” An advisory body that monitors the United Kingdom’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint criticized government officials in a report released last month for breaking their promises and claimed that Britain has “lost its clear global leadership position on climate action.”
Support for a new coal mine and increased domestic oil and gas production, according to the Climate Change Committee, undercuts Britain’s “international messaging” on the necessity of stopping the development of fossil fuel projects.
Sunak is supporting initiatives that would extract carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and inject it into defunct gas fields for subterranean storage.
The concern, according to environmental activists, is that by concentrating on this technology, the government will be diverted from other initiatives that are necessary to speed up the transition to net zero and consumers would be led astray into believing that continuous reliance on fossil fuels is acceptable.
According to Doug Parr, the chief scientific officer at Greenpeace UK, “It’s a bit difficult to take seriously the idea that this should be prioritized for prime ministerial attention when so many other things need it instead.”
Although Sunak’s cash infusion could be “transformative” in advancing carbon capture and storage, Stuart Haszeldine, a professor of carbon capture and storage at the University of Edinburgh, cautioned that one should be wary of the energy sector’s intentions because it has a history of prioritizing shareholder profit over environmental goals.
Oil firms often aren’t really interested in carbon capture and storage until the governments can make it lucrative, Haszeldine told the BBC. The saying goes, “Their money can talk very loudly, but it doesn’t listen very well.”
Intense lobbying by oil and gas firms to keep extracting oil and gas and to go slowly with carbon capture and storage is something that governments are frequently subjected to, he continued.
