Oil And Gas Industry To Help Write New UK Climate Rules

Oil and gas companies were invited by the government to help write the rules on whether new drilling complies with the UK’s climate obligations, just weeks after Boris Johnson urged countries to stop extracting fossil fuels at Cop26.

- Jon Stone

A consultation quietly launched a few days before Christmas and after MPs went back to their constituencies signalled that ministers will green-light new oil extraction – despite scientists saying such exploration is not compatible with reaching net zero by 2050. The document, which is described as being “predominantly” for the oil and gas industries, provides the “opportunity to input on the design” of UK policy.

Ministers were accused by environmentalists of living in a “fantasy” for claiming new drilling is compatible with taking action to tackle the climate emergency. The shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband added that the document “appears to prepare the ground to justify the most dangerous business as usual”.

A report by the International Energy Agency, commissioned by the UK’s own Cop26 president Alok Sharma, warned last year that new oil and gas production was incompatible with reaching net zero by 2050. A separate domestic review by the government, however, said that drilling could proceed subject to some conditions.

Those conditions are now set to be determined by the industry itself. Ministers say they want to “safeguard the future” of the oil and gas industry, which welcomed the move as potentially being a boon to “investor confidence” in fossil fuels, which scientists say should be phased out.

In the run-up to Cop26, The Independent launched the Stop Fuelling the Climate Crisis campaign – shining a light on fossil fuel production in the UK through investigative reporting.