Labour greenlighting new oil drilling would set a ruinous example

Experts have issued a stark warning to the UK Labour government: opening up new fossil fuel fields in the North Sea could ruin international climate targets.

Likewise, this terrible climate leadership from the UK would also embolden other countries to draw on their own fossil fuel reserves, greatly magnifying the predicted negative impact. One senior development official told the Guardian that:

What we are hearing already from developing countries is: why shouldn’t we tap into our own fossil fuel resources if the UK is doing so? That is a legitimate point. You have to provide leadership.

Oil industry shills wearing various different disguises – whether Tory, Reform, trade unionist or the drillers themselves – have put pressure on the government to issue permits for new oil and gas fields.

However, we at the Canary would just like to chip in with our two cents. Namely – holy shit, how are we still having this fucking conversation? You don’t get ‘just a little bit more oil’. We’ve already used too much. Are these genocidal cunts actively trying to kill everything and everyone at this point?

A dangerous example

The two largest remaining oil and gas reserves in the North Sea are the notorious Rosebank and Jackdaw fields. However, even these are already over 90% depleted. As such, they’d require the use of extraction methods that are both energy-intensive and extremely costly.

Even after that, research has predicted that the two fields combined would only produce around 3% of the gas that the UK currently imports.

But again, and not to belabor the point, even if they provided 100% of our fuel they still wouldn’t be worth it, because of the aforementioned rapidly accelerating death of all things. 

Beyond that, climate diplomats and analysts have warned that the UK greenlighting new drilling would also send a dangerous signal to other countries.

If developing nations followed the UK’s dreadful example and used up their own fossil fuel reserves, the world would massively exceed the carbon limits that would otherwise ward of the most ruinous effects of climate breakdown.

‘Short-term interests are being prioritised’

Mohamed Adow – director of the Nairobi-based Power Shift Africa thinktank – explained that:

The UK approving new oil and gas projects would send a shock wave around the world that short-term interests are being prioritised over long-term responsibility. I dread to think what example that would set to the rest of the world. […]

Countries across Africa are being asked to leapfrog to clean energy systems, often with limited financial support. We are told, often by European nations, that the future lies in renewables, and increasingly we are proving that it does. When wealthier nations continue to invest in fossil fuels, they undermine this message and diminish their credibility.

Speaking to the Guardian, one anonymous senior African negotiator stated that their continent would oppose any new drilling on the Labour’s part. The diplomat called the proposal “fundamentally inconsistent” with the Paris climate agreement, and warned that it would weaken climate-vulnerable nations’ trust:

At a moment when science is unequivocal about the need for a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, new oil exploration by a historic emitter is as contradictory as it is regressive. It also risks setting a dangerous precedent for other countries to follow.

‘Solutions of the past’ from Labour?

Likewise, Christiana Figueres – ex-UN executive secretary for the framework convention of climate change – issued similarly damning criticism. She stated that there was neither an economic nor climatological basis for new drilling:

It’s entirely understandable that in today’s geopolitical context, countries must seek greater energy security and independence. But reaching for solutions of the past – such as expanding oil and gas drilling – risks locking in infrastructure that is increasingly out of step with where the global energy system is heading. True energy independence today lies in scaling clean, domestic energy, not in extending the life of declining industries.

UK Labour net-zero secretary Ed Miliband has already signaled that he plans to snub a global conference on the green energy transition later this month. In his place, the country will send special climate envoy Rachel Kyte.

With Miliband’s decision on the oil fields being imminent, and the world watching, the UK stands at a crossroads. The choice is clear – we can stand firm and resist the frantic appeals of the far right and the oil lobby, or we can give in to the climate-wrecking and economically non-viable allure of further drilling.

Remind us again how this even remains a question at this point?

Featured image via the Canary