Rishi Sunak’s decision to mothball his green commitments risks doing no good to anyone, including the Tory party
Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch appear.
The hottest month in world history has just ended. It is only days since the United Nations general secretary, António Guterres, warned that the era of global warming has now become the era of global boiling. Climate crisis haunts all nations without exception. The case for a redoubling of efforts to curb greenhouse gases could hardly be more stark than today.
So what kind of leadership does Britain’s prime minister offer in response to this crisis? Answer: he announces an expansion in drilling for the oil and gas that are driving the emissions that are transforming the world’s climate. In other words, while the planet burns, Rishi Sunak stands accused of pouring fuel on the flames.
Mr Sunak confirmed on Monday that the UK is to press ahead with a new phase of North Sea oil and gas exploration and production. “Hundreds” of licences will be granted in September and in subsequent rounds of licensing. The aim is explicit. Rather than winding down the industry and keeping the resources in the ground as part of the transition to the net zero target, Mr Sunak wants to max out production of the North Sea’s remaining reserves.
Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
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I have successfully defended one article that the Scotsman was claiming copyright to. That copyright is clearly owned by the letter’s authors. That’s the standard of competence I’m up against.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)
Every political system has its share of charlatans or nutcases who deliberately try to stir up division, embrace conspiracy theories, deny reality or advocate dangerous policies for short-term advantage. But what do you do when such views are not just held on the political fringe, but are embraced at the heart of government, as is currently happening in the UK?
There are plenty of immediate challenges facing the Government – inflation, housing shortages, crumbling infrastructure, struggling public services and immigration. Internationally, conflicts rage in many parts of the world, Iran and North Korea continue to pursue nuclear weapons, and democracy itself is under threat from hostile regimes, such as Russia and China.
But by far the biggest long-term threat, which will only make all of these immediate problems harder to tackle, is climate change.
Climate change is not only already devastating animal and plant life, and exacerbating poor health, famine and poverty in some parts of the world, but also fuelling more conflict within and between states for scarce resources. It is driving migration levels higher and, through melting the polar ice cap, opening up new areas of strategic competition with Russia and China.
Climate change is not just a long-term survival threat, but an ongoing, immediate, security, political and economic threat. The evidence is all around, plain to see.
According to the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, July was the hottest month on record, possibly the warmest month humanity has ever experienced. The planet’s temperature has surpassed the crucial threshold of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. Swathes of the American South, the Mediterranean and China have endured devastating heatwaves this summer. Only last week, we saw on our TV screens thousands of desperate British tourists fleeing devastating fires on Greek islands.
New Global Witness analysis shows that government ministers met with fossil fuel companies 54 times between January and March.
London, August 1st, 2023 – Between January and March of this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and climate and energy ministers met with fossil fuel companies 54 times, on average more than once every two days, according to new Global Witness analysis of UK government data. This amounts to around 20 per cent of all lobbying meetings they held in that period. (1)
This analysis comes as the Times reports that Sunak will meet with fossil fuel bosses on Wednesday, just two days after announcing that the Government would grant 100 new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea.
Scientists and campaigners have denounced the Government’s plans to U-turn on its climate commitments and “max out” North Sea oil and gas. This would lock the country deeper into a fossil fuel dependency that has left the UK with the highest energy bills in Western Europe.
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(1) See Transparency International UK’s database on UK government lobbying, available at openaccess.transparency.org.uk.
