LONDON — The U.K. will grant hundreds of new oil and gas licenses for the North Sea as Rishi Sunak’s government continues to lean on fossil fuels as part of its energy strategy.
The U.K. prime minister said on Monday that approving the new licenses would “bolster” energy security and create jobs, as well as build space for carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) projects — but his plans drew immediate warnings from green groups.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) is expected to grant the first license in the fall, with over 100 set to be approved in total.
“Even when we’ve reached net-zero in 2050, a quarter of our energy needs will come from oil and gas,” Sunak said in a statement announcing the plans. “But there are those who would rather that it come from hostile states than from the supplies we have here at home.”
The government also committed to backing two new CCUS projects.
The prime minister is visiting Aberdeenshire on Monday, where he will flesh out plans for the new sites, including the Acorn site in North East Scotland and another in Viking in the Humber
The move to approve new oil and gas licenses will deepen policy splits between the government and opposition Labour party, which has ruled out granting licenses to new oil and gas fields. Labour has, however, stressed that existing licenses would not be revoked.
Minister for Nuclear and Networks Andrew Bowie told Sky News on Monday that he makes “no apologies” for the Conservative Party’s commitment to the “future of the North Sea.”
He pointed to recommendations from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) — the government’s independent climate advisors — which he said “recognises” that oil and gas would play a “large part of our energy baseload” in future decades.
In its report in June, The CCC said the U.K. would “continue to need some oil and gas” but added: “This does not in itself justify the development of new North Sea fields.”
The new pledges also come in the wake of the government’s watering down of several climate pledges after it inched out a victory in the Uxbridge by-election by campaigning against a controversial clean air plan.
Analysts and climate activists have already sounded the alarm on the government’s plan.
“Prioritizing oil and gas over cheaper renewables and pushing back regulations on insulation in rental homes, both of which would bring down bills, is against advice from the International Energy Agency, United Nations and Climate Change Committee,” said Jess Ralston, head of Energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.