MORE than one million people have urged the government to end new oil and gas drilling and deliver a fair transition to renewable energy, in a petition handed in at Downing Street yesterday.
The petition comes ahead of today’s Summit on the Future of Energy Security, co-hosted in London by the British government and the International Energy Agency and attended by ministers from across the globe.
It calls for a halt to new North Sea drilling projects, including the widely opposed Rosebank oilfield, and a “proper” plan to transition workers affected by the industry’s declining need for labour.
The number of jobs supported by oil and gas in Britain has more than halved over the past decade, yet the government has continued to approve new drilling licences.
Signatories to the petition include organisations such as Greenpeace, Global Justice Now and Friends of the Earth.
Stop Rosebank spokeswoman Lauren MacDonald said: “It’s clear that people are sick of sky-high energy bills and anxious about the changes we’re seeing to our climate and weather, both of which are as a result of our dependency on volatile oil and gas.
“The UK government needs to stand up to the oil and gas lobby and act in the best interests of people in the UK who are struggling with bills.”
Ms MacDonald said that the North Sea was in a terminal decline and that the only way to secure reliable, affordable energy was “through tapping into our renewable resources, like wind, which we’re lucky to have in abundance.”
She also highlighted rising levels of extreme weather and wildfires, warning that such phenomena would “get worse without action.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to open today’s summit by outlining Britain’s approach to securing reliable and affordable energy, with renewable energy taking priority over more oil and gas drilling.
Friends of the Earth Scotland spokeswoman Caroline Rance said yesterday that oil and gas workers “must be at the heart of building a new energy system powered by renewable energy and run in the public interest.”
Cross-party MPs echoed the call during a parliamentary debate earlier in the day, demanding a “just transition” that guaranteed secure and clean jobs for North Sea workers.
Labour’s Barry Gardiner said: “We can only make Britain a clean energy superpower if we engage with these workers now and graft their incredible engineering skills into secure new clean jobs in the renewables sector.”
Following Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s call for Britain to “become self-sufficient in gas,” Uplift executive director Tessa Khan said the hard-right politician was “peddling a dangerous fantasy.”
"After 60 years of drilling, the truth is the UK has already burned most of its gas,” she pointed out.
“That’s down to geology, not politics, and no amount of hot air from Farage will change that. Official projections show that we will be almost 100 per cent dependent on gas imports within a couple of decades, regardless of new drilling.
“What we do have in this country is an abundance of renewable resources, particularly wind.
"By trying to slow the shift to renewable energy, Farage is endangering the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, whether that’s in wind manufacturing or grid infrastructure in the UK’s industrial heartlands or decommissioning services in coastal towns like Great Yarmouth.
“Reform would rather we are dependent on expensive gas, which is the reason all our bills have soared, and in hock to the oil and gas industry, which has made obscene profits in recent years.”
