NORTH Sea oil and gas licences may be ruled unlawful after plans for Britain’s first coalmine in 30 years were thrown out at the High Court, a leading campaigner said today.
The government was urged to provide to sustainable jobs and a “coherent” industrial strategy after the ruling left “all eyes on” judicial reviews of the proposed Rosebank and Jackdaw offshore oil and gas fields.
Planning permission for a new mine in Whitehaven in Cumbria was quashed after claims it would be “net zero” were challenged by Friends of the Earth (FoE) and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC).
Mr Justice Holgate said in his judgement: “The assumption that the proposed mine would not produce a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, or would be a net-zero mine, is legally flawed.”
Project developer West Cumbria Mining (WCM) said it would “consider the implications” but the judgement suggests a landmark ruling in June has paved the way for successful legal challenges against fossil-fuel extraction projects in Britain.
It is known as the Finch ruling after Sarah Finch of the Weald Action Group who successfully appealed the Surrey County Council’s decision to grant permission to drill for oil in Horse Hill.
The Supreme Court said environmental damage from burning coal, oil and gas must be taken into account when deciding whether to approve new fossil fuel projects.
Ms Finch said: “That has set a precedent for successful legal challenges against all new fossil-fuel extraction projects.
“We hope this decision means that the days of approving fossil fuel development without accounting for its emissions are behind us.
“The government must now prioritise public investment to support a fair transition and green jobs in West Cumbria.
“All eyes are now on the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields.
“They are also subject to legal challenges, from Uplift and Greenpeace, which are currently with the Scottish court.
“If Horse Hill and the Whitehaven mine are unlawful, they must be as well.”
In July, the newly elected government said it would not to defend the previous Conservative administration’s decision to greenlight the project, following new legal developments.
Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary and Deputy PM Angela Rayner would likely have to take into account the full damage the mine could do to the climate in any reconsideration of the application.
FoE senior lawyer Niall Toru said today’s ruling was “a huge victory for our environment” which “could have ramifications internationally as there are cases abroad where challenges are being made against fossil-fuel projects on a very similar basis.”
He added: “We believe that the writing is on the wall and that WCM should withdraw its application for this climate-wrecking project.”
Matthew McFeeley, partner at Richard Buxton Solicitors, which represented SLACC, said the judgement “means any claim those fuels would ‘substitute’ for other fossil-fuel sources must be also assessed robustly in the environmental statement.
“Simple assertions will no longer pass muster,” he said.
Climate charities and think tanks made fresh calls for government to urgently commit to a just transition and industrial strategy in light of the ruling.
Tata Steel confirmed 2,500 job cuts at the Port Talbot steelworks during this week’s TUC Congress, where delegates narrowly passed a motion opposing any government bans on new North Sea drilling licences.
They said a fully funded workers’ plan that guarantees commensurate jobs for all North Sea workers must be agreed first, calling for an industrial strategy policy “that maximises our domestic energy strengths for national security, with all assets and options part of the solution.”
The charities legally challenging the decisions to grant planning permission to the Rosebank and Jackdaw offshore oil and gas fields also called for a just transition for workers.
Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Paul Morozzo said ministers should response by demonstrating “climate leadership but also … to base our economic future on genuinely sustainable jobs which support communities now without undermining their future.
“That requires a coherent industrial strategy and funding from government to ensure a just transition for workers from the fossil-fuel economy to clean power and clean steel production.”
Uplift executive director Tessa Khan added that the Whitehaven ruling had “made it clear that the favourite line of fossil fuel companies — that if we didn’t produce fossil fuels here, it would simply be produced elsewhere — doesn’t wash.”
Roz Bulleid, research director at Green Alliance, said: “Decarbonisation mustn’t mean deindustrialisation — the UK will need new infrastructure, products and services to reach net zero, and outsourcing this to other countries would be a costly mistake.
“Acting early, focusing on the potential economic strengths of local areas, and involving communities and workers in the development of plans … is the approach we need to see in the government’s forthcoming industrial strategy.”
WWF head of legal advocacy Jake White said that while it was “high time” ministers “make good its promises and refuse the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas licences,” they must “plan for a just transition away from oil and gas for the workers who are extracting dwindling finite reserves of fossil fuels and expand our growing renewable energy market that will increase energy security and protect us from volatile oil and gas prices.”
