‘The age of governments approving new drilling sites by ignoring their climate impacts is over’
Scotland’s supreme civil court has declared the approval of the UK’s North Sea Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields unlawful, overturning consent for their development.
Shell’s Jackdaw gas field and Equinor’s Rosebank oil field have been ruled unlawful because they did not account for the significant emissions that would be caused by burning the fields’ oil and gas.
The ruling states that “The public interest in authorities acting lawfully and the private interest of members of the public in climate change outweigh the private interest of the developers”.
The previous Conservative government greenlit Rosebank in September 2023 and Jackdaw in June 2022.
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, which took the previous government to court alongside Greenpeace UK, responded: “This is a significant win which means that Rosebank cannot go ahead without accounting for its enormous climate harm.”
Philip Evans, from Greenpeace UK, said: “The age of governments approving new drilling sites by ignoring their climate impacts is over”.
He added: “The courts have agreed with what climate campaigners have said all along: Rosebank and Jackdaw are unlawful, and their full climate impacts must now be properly considered.”
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer, said: “This is a victory not just for the campaigners who have been fighting against new oil drilling at Rosebank and Jackdaw, but for common sense.”
“We’ve already seen the effects of at least 1.2°C degrees of global heating: from record-breaking heatwaves on almost every continent and deadly floods taking people’s lives and livelihoods across the world.
“In this context, it would be morally scandalous to allow fossil fuel companies like Equinor to start extracting from new fields – for the sake of their own profits and regardless of the consequences for the rest of us.”
The decisions on Jackdaw and Rosebank will now go back to the government. Labour has promised not to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, but this doesn’t include “production licences,” which both Rosebank and Jackdaw need.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said the government had already sought feedback on revised environmental guidelines that take into account emissions from burning extracted oil and gas and said it will report back in the spring.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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