Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Judge upholds challenge to new North Sea oil and gas licences
An oil rig is moved with tug boats down the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon in the Highlands of Scotland

SCOTLAND’S highest court has upheld environmental campaigners’ legal challenge to the granting of licences for two new oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

Taking their case to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Greenpeace and Uplift argued that the effects of downstream burning of fuel extracted from the Rosebank oil field, north-west of Shetland, and the Jackdaw gas field, off Aberdeen, had not been considered when licences to exploit them were issued in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

They insisted that this rendered unlawful the North Sea Transtition Authority (NSTA) decisions to grant permissions to oil and gas giants Shell, Equinor and Ithaca on behalf of the then Tory government.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Then children's minister Maree Todd helps fill boxes alongside young people who were all involved in the new design of the baby box as its unveiled at the APS Group in Edinburgh, March 2019
Scotland / 15 August 2025
15 August 2025
Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) demonstrate outside the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh, Scotland, December 15, 2022
Communications Workers Union / 15 August 2025
15 August 2025
Unite hospitality strike
Features / 16 August 2025
16 August 2025

A man at Glasgow’s Communist Party stall wearing a James Connolly shirt proclaimed himself a communist, then denounced asylum-seekers as an ‘invading army’ — but compromising won’t help, argues MATT KERR

Similar stories
Climate activists from Greenpeace and Uplift during a demons
Britain / 12 November 2024
12 November 2024
Oil platforms standing in the Cromarty Firth near Invergordo
Britain / 13 September 2024
13 September 2024
North Sea oil and gas licences may be ruled unlawful after High Court bans new coalmine