The House Article | We saw homes burn in Stourbridge

Firefighters dampen down the burnt-out remains of a house on 14 August in Stourbridge (PA Images/Alamy)

3 min read35 min

Climate change is no longer a distant threat; it is here with us and we must face up to the fact that it will keep getting worse until we stop burning fossil fuels.

As a former NHS worker, I care deeply about public safety. Right now, our emergency services are being stretched to the limit, and the people we represent are the ones paying the price.

Climate scientists have been clear for years that these events are directly linked to the continued burning of fossil fuels. Yet right now, the government is mulling over whether to approve Rosebank, the largest undeveloped oil field in the UK.

When the Prime Minister visited Stourbridge this month, he rightly said we need to take climate change seriously. The decision on Rosebank, expected soon, will be the biggest test of this statement.

After the courts ruled that the full emissions from burning the fossil fuels extracted must be considered in the consenting process, Rosebank’s developers were forced to admit that its true climate impact over a 25-year period would equate to almost 70 per cent of the UK’s entire annual emissions. To sign off on Rosebank now would lock us into a colossal amount of emissions at the precise moment the science tells us we have to pull back.

Tragically, it is ordinary people and workers like those in my community who will pay the price.

It’s families like those who saw their homes go up in flames along with their possessions and, in some cases, their pets. It’s the firefighters who across the country are on the front line of this emergency but are grossly overstretched. Firefighters who themselves have called on Andy Burnham to stop drilling for more fossil fuels. And it’s the NHS patients sweltering in hospital wards deemed unsafe and “dangerously hostile”.

We keep hearing the same tired argument that projects like Rosebank offer energy security. But the reality is that over 90 per cent of the North Sea’s reserves are already gone. 

And in the case of Rosebank, the vast majority of its reserves are oil, nearly all of which will be exported.

The events of this summer do not begin to scratch the surface of what lies ahead

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Extracting what is left will do nothing to help struggling families facing the consequences of yet another fossil fuel price shock. It won’t knock a penny off energy bills and will further fuel the climate crisis that is pushing up the cost of food and other vital goods. 

This isn’t a choice between the climate and British industry. As the basin declines, jobs supported by the North Sea have more than halved over the past decade despite the previous Conservative government issuing hundreds of new licences and companies raking in record profits.

Unlike the Conservatives and Reform UK, we know the only way to truly reindustrialise North Sea communities is by creating good, unionised jobs in industries with a long-term future. The decision on Rosebank will define where this government truly stands: on the side of people facing increasing climate damage, or with mega-multinationals who have profited to the tune of billions from war and spiralling bills.

If we are serious about protecting places like Stourbridge from worse fires and harsher weather, Westminster needs to show more courage. We simply cannot fight fires with one hand while pouring fuel on them with the other. 

Cat Eccles is Labour MP for Stourbridge