Sunak backs plans for new UK oil and gas exploration

AFP | London                             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has backed plans for new fossil fuel drilling off Britain’s coast, saying in a Sunday newspaper interview he would be “pragmatic and proportionate” about reaching net zero.

His government is expected to approve the development of Rosebank, near Scotland’s Shetland Isles -- believed to be the UK’s largest undeveloped oil and gas field -- as well as other sites in the nearby North Sea imminently.

The prospect has infuriated environmental campaigners, who argue that stopping all new fossil fuel exploitation is essential if Britain is to decarbonise by mid-century.

They accuse the British leader of lacking conviction on climate policies and playing politics with the issue, as he eyes a general election due next year amid a cost-of-living crisis.

The main opposition Labour party, well ahead in the polls, said earlier this year it will not issue any new North Sea drilling licences if it regains power after more than a decade in opposition.

“I think it makes absolutely no sense, as the Labour Party is suggesting, to ban North Sea oil and gas,” Sunak told the Sunday Telegraph.

“That is just going to weaken our energy security and strengthen the hands of dictators like (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin,” he said, arguing it jeopardised 200,000 jobs and threatened £80 billion ($103 billion) worth of tax revenue.

Sunak, who became leader last October, said his approach was “to support the UK’s energy industry” and appeared to suggest that not exploiting new UK oil and gas reserves risked “the lights going out” in Britain.

“Everybody sensible recognises that we will need those fossil fuels as part of the transition to net zero,” he argued.