Campaigners vow to step up action against new North Sea oilfield

Activists and climate experts are vowing to step up their campaign to halt a huge new oilfield in the North Sea, which is expected to be given official approval in the coming days.

The Rosebank project is three times bigger than the controversial Cambo field that was put on hold more than a year ago and has the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil, which when burned would emit as much carbon dioxide as running 56 coal-fired power stations for a year.

It is expected to be signed off by the energy secretary, Grant Shapps, after Rishi Sunak hinted last month that it would be “economically illiterate” not to invest in UK oil and gas because Britain will remain reliant on fossil fuels for “the next few decades”.

However, this week the government’s climate advisers said pushing ahead with the new fossil fuel development in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence was “utterly unacceptable”.

Tessa Khan, from the campaign group Uplift, said if the project was given approval they would step up their campaign, targeting “all those who are enabling it” including the Norwegian government and the banks and insurers that are behind the project.

“We shouldn’t have to demand that ministers put our interests ahead of profiteering oil and gas companies … nor fight this government for a safe climate and clean energy that everyone can afford. We shouldn’t have to but we will.”

Public opposition to the project has been building over the past year with hundreds of climate scientists and academics and more than 200 organisations from the Women’s Institute to Oxfam joining tens of thousands of people across the UK.

Recent protests have included a “wave of resistance”, in which hundreds of people took to the sea and local beaches in boats and kayaks, on paddleboards and in diving gear to highlight concerns about its potential impact on Britain’s marine life and climate.

Climate activists say they “have strong grounds to believe that an unconditional approval of Rosebank would be unlawful”.

Khan added: “Grant Shapps was told by his own climate advisers just this week that approving Rosebank is incompatible with maintaining a safe climate. It’s that simple. Add to that the fact that UK taxpayers will cover 90% of the costs of Rosebank’s development, while it won’t make the slightest difference to our energy bills as it’s mainly oil for export, and there is no rational case for allowing it to proceed.”

The International Energy Agency warned before the UK-hosted Cop26 climate summit in 2021 that no new oil and gas exploration should take place if the world was to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures. This year, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called on governments to halt new licences for oil and gas exploration and development.

Labour had said it would ban any new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. However, earlier this month it said it would not revoke any North Sea oil and gas licences granted by this government, which is likely to include the Rosebank project.

Lauren MacDonald, a Stop Rosebank campaigner, said: “If Labour allows the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the UK to move forward on their watch, they’ll blow the UK’s climate targets and our chances at a livable future, not to mention their green energy plan. Allowing new oil and gas fields just locks this country into an expensive, polluting energy source far longer than is necessary.”

Hannah Martin, a co-director of Green New Deal Rising, which is campaigning for Labour to back a series of far-reaching climate and economic reforms in its next manifesto, said: “The science is clear, as the IEA said: we cannot develop new fossil fuel projects if the world is to stop climate catastrophe. Any government who wants to be taken seriously as a climate leader must do everything they can to stop all new licences for oil and gas.”