Campaigners from Oceana UK protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where the environmental group is taking the government to court over 31 licences for oil and gas exploration, March 26, 2025
NOT a single exploration well was drilled in North Sea waters in 2025 – the first year since oil and gas was discovered there in the 1960s, analysis finds.
Energy consultants Wood Mackenzie found oil and gas investment on the UK continental shelf, which stood at £4 billion this year, is set to plunge by more than 40 per cent in the next to £2.5bn, its lowest level for more than 50 years.
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Greenpeace UK’s Paul Morozzo said: “This isn’t a temporary blip.
“The North Sea’s days as an oil and gas basin are coming to an end. Investment is falling because of physical constraints and decreased profitability.
“The real risk now is chasing a declining industry instead of preparing for what comes next.
“Doubling down on oil and gas won’t protect jobs, energy security or household bills.
“It’s time the government took action on the cost of living crisis, as well as to protect us all against the worst impacts of climate change.
“The way to do that is by investing in the industries of the future, not clinging to one that’s in terminal decline.”
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark RichardsImage of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Featuring Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch.
An activist from the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion holds up a sign reading “Oil Kills” as police officers remove him from the premises of DNB Bank during a protest in Oslo, Norway on August 21, 2025. (Photo by Javad Parsa/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)
“Requiring governments to assess the global climate consequences of oil and gas combustion before approving new fossil projects is common sense, and long overdue,” said one campaigner.
Although the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday sided with the Norwegian government over six young adults and a pair of climate groups, the plaintiffs still welcomed the tribunal’s ruling as “a major step forward,” in the words of Frode Pleym, head of GreenpeaceNorway.
The case stems from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy granting 10 exploration licenses to 13 companies for fossil fuel production in the Arctic Barents Sea in 2016. The plaintiffs argued that doing so violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, or the right to respect for private and family life.
The court unanimously held that “there had been no violation” of Article 8, but it also affirmed that the government must conduct a full environmental impact assessment, including greenhouse gas emissions from combustion, for any new petroleum production.
“It’s a relief to see the court recognize what science has told us for years—that new oil and gas fields threaten our most basic human rights,” Pleym said in a statement. “Requiring governments to assess the global climate consequences of oil and gas combustion before approving new fossil projects is common sense, and long overdue.”
Young Friends of the Earth Norway, which sued alongside Greenpeace and the six individuals, also praised the ruling as progress.
“This decision is a quantum leap for climate accountability,” said the group’s leader, Sigrid Hoddevik Losnegård. “The government can no longer continue its oil and gas policy as if climate change doesn’t exist. This judgment will have ripple effects far beyond Norway.”
I can think of at least seven ways fossil fuel producers could wiggle out of this, but still: holy shit this is huge.
The plaintiffs noted in a joint statement that the ruling “builds on” recent decisions from the International Court of Justice and the UK Supreme Court. The ICJ said in a landmark advisory opinion in July that countries have a legal obligation to take cooperative action to address the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency. At the time, Danilo Garrido, legal counsel at Greenpeace International, hailed the development as “the start of a new era of climate accountability at a global level.”
That decision came roughly a year after the UK’s top court ruled that Surrey authorities’ approval of the Horse Hill drilling project “was unlawful” because they didn’t consider “emissions that will occur when the oil produced is burnt as fuel,” as required by law. Friends of the Earth UK called the ruling “a heavy blow for the fossil fuel industry” that could impact other projects.
The European court’s Tuesday decision came less than two weeks away from the start of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil. In preparation for COP30, the UN on Tuesday released a report warning that governments’ climate plans would reduce fossil fuel emissions by just 10% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels, far short of what is needed to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise this century to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.
As Oil Change Internationalpointed out in a June report, Norway and three other wealthy nations—Australia, Canada, and the United States—account for the majority of planned oil and gas expansion over the next decade. This month, the group commissioned a poll that found a majority of Norwegians believe their country should either stop exploring for new oil and gas or slow down the pace.
“The data show that Norwegians increasingly want political leadership that aligns the country’s oil policy with its climate goals,” Oil Change’s North Sea campaign manager, Silje Lundberg, said Monday. “People are calling time on endless oil expansion—it’s the government that’s stuck in the past. The public clearly wants a plan to phase down oil and gas and deliver real climate leadership, not more empty talk from ministers protecting the industry.”
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
A windfarm off the Cumbrian coast. The crown estate commands hefty option fees from developers to secure areas of the seabed to build windfarms. Photograph: Rob Arnold/Alamy
Environmental group accuses king’s property management company of ‘milking for profit’ its monopoly ownership of seabed
Greenpeace is threatening to sue King Charles’s property management company, accusing it of exploiting its monopoly ownership of the seabed.
The environmental lobby group alleges the crown estate has driven up costs for wind power developers and boosted its own profits, as well as the royal household’s income, due to the “aggressive” way it auctions seabed rights.
The crown estate, as the legal owner of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is responsible for auctioning offshore wind rights. It has benefited from the huge growth in the industry, commanding hefty option fees from renewable energy developers to secure areas of the seabed to build their windfarms.
Will McCallum, co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said the estate should be “managing the seabed in the interest of the nation and the common good, not as an asset to be milked for profit and outrageous bonuses”.
“We should leave no stone unturned in looking for solutions to lower energy bills that are causing misery to millions of households,” he said.
Greenpeace climbers scale two 75m-high chimney stacks at the UK’s second largest gas-fired power station, Staythorpe Power Station. Photo: Greenpeace
EIGHT Greenpeace activists remained in police custody today after scaling two 75m-high chimney stacks at England’s largest gas-fired power station.
The group climbed maintenance ladders at Staythorpe power station, owned by energy giant RWE, before unfurling a banner reading: “The Great Gas Rip-Off: Now on!”.
Monday’s protest aimed to draw attention to how the cost of the most expensive form of power, usually gas, still determines the price of electricity, which keeps bills high.
This is despite gas generating just 30 per cent of Britain’s electricity, Greenpeace says.
Britain spent an extra £90 billion on gas between 2021 and 2024, following price spikes triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to analysis by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit.
Greenpeace warned that companies can earn huge profits when demand surges, citing an evening in January when two power station owners were paid at least £12 million to supply three hours of electricity following a spell of freezing weather.
Activists from the U.K. action group Everyone Hates Elon and Greenpeace Italy unfolded a banner reading, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax,” on Piazza San Marco in the Italian city on June 23, 2025. (Photo: Michele Lapini/Greenpeace)
“This isn’t just about one person—it’s about changing the rules so no billionaire can dodge responsibility, anywhere,” said one Greenpeace campaigner.
Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—the third- or fourth-richest person on the planet, depending on the list—is hosting various wedding events in Venice, Italy, this week, festivities that have drawn protests, including a massive banner on Monday.
Activists with Greenpeace Italy and the U.K. action group Everyone Hates Elon—targeting Elon Musk, U.S. President Donald Trump’s close far-right ally and the wealthiest person on Earth—unfolded a banner that read, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax,” in Piazza San Marco.
“While Venice is sinking under the weight of the climate crisis, billionaires are partying like there is no tomorrow on their megayachts,” Greenpeace campaigner Clara Thompson said in a statement. “This isn’t just about one person—it’s about changing the rules so no billionaire can dodge responsibility, anywhere.”
“The real issue is a broken system that lets billionaires skip out on their fair share of taxes while everyone else is left to foot the bill,” she argued. “That’s why we need fair, inclusive tax rules, and they must be written at the U.N.”
Jeff Bezos pays his staff poverty wages and dodges tax. No wonder he can afford to shut down half of Venice for his wedding this week. Tax billionaires NOW.Location: Piazza San Marco, Venice@greenpeace.org #JeffBezos #TaxTheSuperRich
Reporting on Monday’s display of the banner—which features Bezos’ face and is about 65 feet long and wide—Reuters detailed:
Local police arrived to talk to activists and check their identification documents, before they rolled up their banner.
“The problem is not the wedding, the problem is the system. We think that one big billionaire can’t rent a city for his pleasure,” Simona Abbate, one of the protesters, told Reuters.
A spokesperson from Everyone Hates Elon similarly said in a Monday statement that “as governments talk about hard choices and struggle to fund public services, Jeff Bezos can afford to shut down half a city for days on end just to get married.”
“Just weeks ago, he spent millions on an 11-minute space trip,” the spokesperson added, referring to the Blue Origin flight for multiple public figures, including Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez. “If there was ever a sign billionaires like Bezos should pay wealth taxes, it’s this.”
Bezos and Sánchez’s event planners, Lanza and Baucina, toldCNN: “Rumors of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality… From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimizing of any disruption to the city.”
The details surrounding Bezos’ marriage to the former news anchor have been closely guarded, but CNN reported that around 30 of Venice’s 280 water taxis are thought to be reserved, the city’s nine yacht ports are booked, and one source said that special permission has been granted for private helicopters.
While Venice’s mayor and regional governor Luca Zaia have defended the billionaire’s luxury wedding events, citing economic benefits for local businesses, “the ‘No Space for Bezos’ movement—a play on words also referring to the bride’s recent space flight—has united a dozen Venetian organizations including housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners, and university groups,” according toThe Associated Press.
The Bloomberg and Forbes lists tracking global billionaires put Bezos’ net worth between $223.4 billion and $231 billion as of Monday. At times in recent years, he has been believed to be the richest person in the world.
Campaigners from Oceana UK protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where the environmental group is taking the government to court over 31 licences for oil and gas exploration, March 26, 2025
Greenpeace climbers scale two 75m-high chimney stacks at the UK’s second largest gas-fired power station, Staythorpe Power Station. Photo: Greenpeace