New North Sea drilling would barely reduce UK gas imports at all, data shows

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/04/new-north-sea-drilling-jackdaw-rosebank-uk-gas-imports

A gas platform in the North Sea off Norway. New fields in Scottish waters would leave the UK still dependent on supplies from Norway and elsewhere. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Exclusive: research finds Jackdaw field would provide only about 2% of current demand, and Rosebank only 1%

Opening major new fields in the North Sea would make almost no difference to the UK’s reliance on gas imports, research has shown.

The Jackdaw field, one of the largest unexploited gasfields in the North Sea, would displace only 2% of the UK’s current imports of gas, which would leave the UK still almost entirely dependent on supplies from Norway and a few other sources.

The Rosebank field, also in Scottish waters but mainly containing oil, would displace only about 1% of the UK’s gas imports.

Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, the campaign group, which compiled the data from public sources, said: “New fields like Jackdaw and Rosebank would do vanishingly little to boost UK gas production. Even in the most optimistic scenario, and assuming none of its gas is exported, Jackdaw would provide just 2% of UK demand over its nine- to 12-year lifetime.”

It has already been shown, by authorities including the UK Energy Research Centre, that new drilling would not reduce oil and gas prices, or improve the UK’s energy security. It is also unlikely to produce durable jobs or major new tax revenues, as 90% of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas has already been burned, putting the industry in steep and irrecoverable decline. Companies are also demanding tax breaks to tap the new fields, which are harder to access than existing supplies.

Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/04/new-north-sea-drilling-jackdaw-rosebank-uk-gas-imports

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.
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.
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.
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

Continue ReadingNew North Sea drilling would barely reduce UK gas imports at all, data shows

Farage regrets move to run ‘bankrupt’ council

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93wv0ylq9yo

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he wished the party “hadn’t bothered” to take minority control of Worcestershire County Council

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he wishes the party “hadn’t bothered” to take minority control of Worcestershire County Council, because of its financial problems.

The Reform-led authority recently approved a council tax rise of almost 9%, one of the largest in its history, in a bid to balance its books and avoid effective bankruptcy amid a budget shortfall.

When questioned about the decision to increase tax, which is higher than the standard 5% normally allowed, Farage said the party had inherited the council and “didn’t make it bankrupt”.

A Reform UK spokesman, addressing Farage’s comments, said the party had “stepped up” and had done its “civic duty”.

He added: “Despite inheriting a catastrophic mess from the Tories and a council that had to be propped up by government bailouts, our team has fought hard to deliver a responsible budget and avoid raising council tax to the maximum.”

Reform UK, which had previously pledged to cut tax during its election campaign, took over leadership of the authority from the Conservatives following the local elections in May, but has no overall majority.

Article continues at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93wv0ylq9yo

Nigel Farage reminds you that he's the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
Nigel Farage reminds you that he’s the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.
Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.
Continue ReadingFarage regrets move to run ‘bankrupt’ council

War on Iran shows that economies are vulnerable to oil shocks

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Responding to the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) finding that the cost of Net Zero is less than the cost of the 2022 Ukraine oil price shock, the Green Party has today said we need to transition to clean energy as quickly as possible to protect people and the economy from future oil shocks. 

Contrary to Reform UK’s unfounded claims about the cost of Net Zero, the CCC has today confirmed that the benefits of Net Zero outweigh the costs: “for every £1 spent there will be £2 to £4 in benefits” they conclude. 

Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said “Our dependency on fossil fuels is a strategic vulnerability for the UK – as evidenced by the war between Russia and Ukraine and the now the war on Iran. We need to make the transition to clean energy as fast as we can to protect people and our economy from the price shocks and instability that come when oil prices spike.” 

Green Party's Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
Green Party’s Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

Green Party MP Carla Denyer, who leads on energy security and net zero, said “This report makes a compelling case: that cutting carbon emissions makes sense for our economy, as well as for the safety of our climate.

“The numbers speak for themselves – investing in Net Zero pays dividends, avoiding the billions of pounds in climate damages that we would face as the cost of not acting, while also giving us warmer homes, cheaper bills, cleaner air and healthier lives for us and future generations.”

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.
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.
Continue ReadingWar on Iran shows that economies are vulnerable to oil shocks

Reaching net zero by 2050 ‘cheaper for UK than one fossil fuel crisis’

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/11/reaching-net-zero-by-2050-cheaper-for-uk-than-one-fossil-fuel-crisis

The Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Eliminating the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels would be the most cost-effective option for the UK economy, the CCC said. Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

Climate change committee finds move to renewable energy would also bring health, economic and security benefits

Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast.

Eliminating the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels by adopting renewable energy and green technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, would be the best and most cost-effective option for the future economy, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) found.

Doing so would prevent the kind of shock that consumers are experiencing from the Iran war, which has sent the cost of oil and gas soaring to levels not seen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Reaching net zero would cost about £4bn a year, the CCC found, or close to £100bn by 2050, which was roughly equivalent to the energy-related costs of the fossil fuel shocks that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The findings contradict widespread claims made by rightwing thinktanks and populist politicians including the Reform party that net zero would represent a crippling cost of £9tn to the UK’s economy. As well as exaggerating costs, these estimates failed to take into account the cost of paying for the fossil fuels needed for energy if we do not reach net zero.

Nigel Topping, chair of the CCC, said the real costs were not only manageable but offered protection against future fossil fuel supply crunches and against the impacts of the climate crisis. “In light of current world events, it’s more important than ever for the UK to move away from being reliant on volatile foreign fossil fuels, to clean, domestic, less wasteful energy,” he said.

Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/11/reaching-net-zero-by-2050-cheaper-for-uk-than-one-fossil-fuel-crisis

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.
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.
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.
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.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

Continue ReadingReaching net zero by 2050 ‘cheaper for UK than one fossil fuel crisis’

Owen Jones: I saw how the Greens channelled voters’ anger – and fused it with hope. That’s why they won in Gorton and Denton

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/27/gorton-and-denton-byelection-keir-starmer-labour

Labour did not simply lose; it disgraced itself. It has been accused of sending leaflets appearing to come from a tactical voting organisation that did not exist, which “recommended” voting Labour based on “a new prediction”. Labour attacked the Greens for their principled opposition to a failed “war on drugs” that leaves a multibillion-pound trade in the hands of criminal gangs and condemns many addicts to early graves.

Labour feared a Green victory would be existential. It is. Gorton and Denton ranked 127th on the Greens’ target list. If Polanski’s party can capture one of Labour’s safest seats, then no Labour MP can feel secure. And it is worse than it looks. Canvassers repeatedly told me they met voters – Muslim and non-Muslim alike – who were frightened into backing Labour to stop Reform. They would have voted Green had they believed victory possible. Next time, those people will.

The Starmer project rested on crushing the left. As a mere frontman for the most reactionary and personally toxic elements in his party, he secured power by assuring members he would preserve the radicalism they had voted for – and then buried it. They assumed they could get away with it, confident much of the media would applaud the destruction of socialists as sober statecraft.

But deceit is all Starmerism had – and events in Gorton and Denton show the vacuity of that. There was no animating vision, no reckoning with a broken economic order. What Starmer’s Labour did not anticipate was the re-emergence of the left beyond Labour’s institutional walls. It was comfortable competing with the Conservatives and Reform, aping their anti-migrant rhetoric. It did not regard the left as a legitimate political force: being devoured by the radical left was never in the script. In the end, its war on the left has consumed it.

Labour now faces a reckoning between a Blairite faction urging further defiance of an estranged electorate and others demanding a frantic pivot to win back disillusioned voters. Even if the leadership desired the latter, the parliamentary party is crowded with too many cynical careerists to make it credible. In my view, Labour cannot be saved: it must be replaced. Gorton and Denton suggests that is possible.

See the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/27/gorton-and-denton-byelection-keir-starmer-labour

Continue ReadingOwen Jones: I saw how the Greens channelled voters’ anger – and fused it with hope. That’s why they won in Gorton and Denton