Scientists On Survival – SOS Rosebank

Scientists fire extinguisher protest at Dept for Energy Security

The government’s public consultation on new oil and gas licences ended on Monday, and a recent Bloomberg news article suggested that, despite Andy Burnham’s previous commitments to carbon neutrality (signing the Fossil-Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty) and his support for environmental funds, when he was Mayor of Manchester, he was set to approve development of the North Sea Rosebank and Jackdaw fields. The fields are owned and operated by a joint venture, Adura, between Norwegian Equinor and Shell.

A Scottish Court ruling in January 2025 halted exploration, after UK NGOs Greenpeace and Uplift persuaded the judge, Lord Ericht, that the government’s decision to grant new exploration licences was unlawful because it only took into account the direct local extraction and processing carbon footprint, rather than consider the consequences of burning the extracted fossil fuels once delivered and burnt elsewhere. [These are known as ‘downstream’ or ‘Scope 3’ emissions.]

Labour’s own manifesto promised no new exploration, but the loophole for Rosebank and Jackdaw is that they were approved by the previous Conservative government and so would not be ‘new’.

Pressure on Burnham to approve comes from fossil fuel lobbyists and even Donald Trump, along with a widespread misinformation campaign on social media and UK billionaire-owned press, claiming they would provide 10% of domestic energy needs, lower bills and sustain thousands of jobs as well as generating revenue for public services.

In reality, any fuel extracted will go straight to huge global markets with little or no effect on price or security.

While it’s true that tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the past decade, this is due mainly to the overall depletion of the basin, and Equinor’s job claim of 1600 new jobs has been thoroughly challenged by analysts at Uplift who estimate it at nearer to 250 jobs over the lifetime of the project. Meanwhile, jobs in renewables are increasing fast.

With the end of the ‘windfall tax’ and declining production generally, the Office of Budget Responsibility is forecasting ever lower revenue from North Sea fuels.

Last week, 50 eminent UK climate scientists signed an open letter highlighting the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry and asking the Secretary of State for Energy Security, Miatta Fahnbulleh, to properly consider the climate repercussions of a decision on the North Sea exploration.

The Scientists On Survival activists used water-based ECO fire extinguishers on Monday, symbolically dousing the fires that licences would cause. Wildlife conservationist Dr Charlie Gardner told Real Media that although climate experts have predicted the increase in heatwaves and other extreme weather we are seeing worldwide, everyone is surprised that it is this bad this quickly. Science teacher Dr Jen Murphy spoke about the immediate effect on food prices and her concerns for the UK’s food security – this year’s cereal crop is down around 45% already due to drought and heat. Dr Abi Perrin, a microbiologist and science communicator researches and writes about climate almost every day – she says that she’s terrified over what’s already happening and describes the government as having a choice between confronting the fires we are facing, or pouring more fuel on them.