Government Approves Jackdaw Gas Field As Campaigners Condemn "Climate Vandalism"

The government has approved drilling at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, putting energy security at the heart of its decision and prompting immediate condemnation from climate campaigners.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said it was "right" to look at maximising the existing energy reserves in Britain, while insisting the government remains committed to reaching net zero by 2050. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh told the BBC that Jackdaw could begin supplying gas to British homes and businesses as early as the end of this month. She acknowledged, however, that although it would mean the UK uses less imported energy, it would not lower energy bills this winter.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski called the decision an act of "climate vandalism" and "a betrayal of all our futures". Danny Gross of Friends of the Earth asked whether the Prime Minister was "living in a parallel universe", pointing to the country's hottest summer on record, with droughts, wildfires and probably the most heat-related deaths on record. He said Jackdaw "won't make a jot of difference to energy bills" but would fuel the climate chaos already unfolding.

Greenpeace and the other NGOs that originally challenged drilling at Jackdaw estimate the field will provide just 2% of the UK's gas over its lifespan, doing "next to nothing" to reduce reliance on foreign gas imports, according to The Guardian's Hettie O'Brien. Green campaigners' general assessment, Politico's London Playbook reported, is that only a small amount of fossil fuel remains to be extracted from a largely depleted North Sea basin.

Supporters say the case for drilling is stronger in the current climate. The Telegraph's world economy editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, described militant opposition to further North Sea drilling as a futile hill to die on at the best of times, and "pathologically stupid" in the middle of a global energy crisis. He noted that when successive British governments wrote off North Sea gas as a short-term cash cow with no future, the world's shipping lanes were open, the US was still behaving like a friend and global supply seemed assured, whereas circumstances are now different.

The most persuasive arguments for Jackdaw, The Guardian's analysis noted, are that it will boost UK tax revenues and stem the loss of North Sea oil jobs, with no meaningful impact on UK emissions. But it added that approving more production means the global supply of fossil fuels will ultimately increase.

Whilst it appears that Jackdaw has broad cross-party support, with the majority of Labour MPs comfortable endorsing it. The same cannot be said for Rosebank, a new oilfield 80 miles off the Shetland coast, which is still awaiting government approval.

Now there is a huge campaign growing against that field being utilised and given the green light by the government.

Source: The Week / The Guardian / The Greens / Greenpeace / Daily Telegraph