UK approves North Sea oil drilling plan welcomed by industry, but activists say will ‘shatter climate commitments’

Name: El Nino is here, and it’s quite worrying, according to climate scientists
Uploaded: 2023-09-27T09:04:48.000Z
Duration: 2 min 50 s
Description: El Nino is here, and it’s quite worrying, according to climate scientists

The UK maintains it must strengthen energy security via continued production of fossil fuels following the invasion of Ukraine by key producer Russia

Wednesday’s announcement comes one week after PM Rishi Sunak softened policies aimed at the UK achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050

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The UK approved plans for a new oil and gas production in the North Sea as the country rolls back its net zero promises. Photo: Pool/AFP

Agence France-Presse

Published: 5:04pm, 27 Sep 2023Updated: 5:12pm, 27 Sep 2023

Britain on Wednesday authorised new production of gas and oil in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland, one week after the government diluted its net zero targets.

The North Sea Transition Authority, a UK oil and gas regulator, said in a statement that it had “granted development and production consent for the Rosebank field, northwest of Shetland” to a Norwegian-Israeli joint venture.

Norwegian oil and gas producer Equinor and Ithaca Energy, a subsidiary of Israeli group Delek, will together invest US$3.8 billion in the field’s development, a separate statement said.

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El Nino is here, and it’s quite worrying, according to climate scientists

Equinor has an 80 per cent interest in the project and Ithaca the remainder.

The UK government maintains it must strengthen energy security via continued production of fossil fuels following the invasion of Ukraine by key producer Russia, even if it means impacting its target on net zero carbon emissions.

Wednesday’s announcement comes one week after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak softened policies aimed at the UK achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

He did this by saying a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars would be pushed back from 2030 to 2035.

Sunak also announced an easing of energy efficiency targets for rental properties and backtracked on plans to make homeowners replace gas boilers with heat pumps.

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