Britain faces a major setback in efforts to cut fossil fuel emissions

478
5
Britain faces a major setback in efforts to cut fossil fuel emissions

Drilling rigs are parked on the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon, Scotland, Canada January 27, 2015. LONDON, Oct 19 Reuters - Britain faces a fossil fuel dilemma: it can burnish its green credentials by temporarily halting new oil and gas development in the North Sea, while doing so will leave it more dependent on imported fuel.

How Britain will be headed for net zero emissions by 2050 when it hosts the COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, starting on 31 Oct. 00.

Navigating this route has already proved challenging.

When Britain enshrined its net zero target in 2050, Greenpeace activists steered speedboats towards a BP platform in the North Sea and issued a Climate Emergency banner to try to stop production starting from Vorlich oilfield.

Neither activism nor legislation halted the development. Production from Vorlich began in November 2020 and was turned into a manufacturing facility.

Oil majors say that new production can play a role in controlling decline, while campaigners are pressing for an immediate halt to new projects with publicity stunts and legal action.

The government, meanwhile, needs to keep the country's lights on as it smoothes over volatile energy markets and juggles competing demands over how to achieve its climate goals.

If demand goes away and demand doesn't change, then that has one consequence and that is an escalation in price rises, said the BP BP.L Chief Executive Bernard Looney this month.

Britain and other European states have already felt this acutely. Brent crude, a benchmark based on British crude barrels, is up more than 60% this year, while the price of Brent crude has risen over 250%.

The challenge caused by declining domestic production and rising fuel imports has been felt across Europe. The wholesale gas price in Spain is up more than 350% in this year.

The north sea, which could once depend on its own fields for oil and gas to heat up its power stations, fuel its cars and fire its homes has been a net energy importer since 2005 as output from Britain has dwindled.

With the capacity of its gas storage facilities now only enough to last the nation a few days, Britain's reliance on just-in-time supplies from Qatar or elsewhere leave it exposed when the market tightens, like now with the surge in demand as economies recover from COVID - 19 pandemic.

For activists the solution is not turning the taps back on, but rather reducing domestic fossil fuel consumption.

We're calling on Boris Johnson to stop pushing through new oil and gas projects, said Greenpeace activist Philip Evans, after the British prime minister who has been pressing other countries to deepen climate commitments before COP 26.

If the government is worried about keeping the lights on there are things they can be doing to reduce demand, Evans said, including improvements to house insulation, cleaner public transport and more investment in renewable power generation.

Around 70 scientists and academics published an open letter in Britain's Independent weekly this week calling on Johnson to stop allowing investment and licensing for new oil and gas fields, saying that now is the time for bold political action Britain has made progress in some areas. It is the world's largest offshore wind power producer and is rapidly expanding this resource. But that doesn't cause wind-proof homes.

But fossil fuel used is rapidly rising and it is more pressing than ever to stop pollution. The International Energy Agency said in a 2015 Paris climate summit report that the world must stop new oil and gas projects to reach the critical goals for global warming by 2050 compared with preindustrial levels.

In June, the purity of the IEA report is excellent, but reality in practice for countries is about ensuring security of supply, Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Reuters when she was still Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth in June as it was still British minister of state.

Norway has not committed to halting North Sea exploration, taking a similar approach to Britain but not Denmark, another North Sea producer, that has halted new projects.

However, Britain has managed a decline with production now half the 1999 peak at about 1 million barrels of oil equivalent to your boepd or about 1% of global oil demand.

Oil and Gas UK OGUK, an industry association, has committed to making the North Sea operationally net zero basin by 2050, which means it can take any ltoe emissions to eliminate, capture or offset any residual emissions from producing oil and gas there.

It said in September that imported production was cheaper and cleaner than domestic gas, given shipping fuel creates emissions and because some other producer nations have poor environmental records.

Making the most of indigenous resources helps meet UK demand and contain price growth, providing secure supplies with a lower carbon footprint than imports offer, OGUK added.

The British Oil and Gas Authority said natural gas extracted from the British North Sea had an average emission intensity of 22 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent, while imported LNG had an average intensity of 59 kg.

Yet Greenpeace and other activists say these arguments miss the point: using fossil fuels should stop rather than simply trying to make using them cleaner.

They have taken campaigning to the courts to push for swift action.

In one case, Greenpeace sought to have a Scottish Shell gas field licence scrapped over its emissions via BP court - although the action failed. In another case, it is seeking to halt the development of the Cambo field off the Shetland Isles, a field part owned by Royal Dutch Shell RDSa. We've delivered a 12 foot oil-stained statue of Evans right to the gates of Downing Street calling him out as a monumental climate failure, said Greenpeace's Evans. They can expect Greenpeace in the courtroom to see a lot more of Greenpeace.