"Approving the Jackdaw gas field solves absolutely nothing. Jackdaw’s gas won’t lower our bills, minister’s have conceded this. It won’t stop us from needing to import gas: over its lifetime, Jackdaw’s reserves will only meet around 1- 2% of UK gas demand on average. All it means is more profits for Shell and a worsening climate crisis.
This government needs to adopt some new ideas. The only way we are going to secure an affordable, less polluting source of energy – one that means that people don’t have to make impossible choices this winter between food or fuel – is by scaling up renewables and with a national programme to upgrade homes. This is how to ensure people stay warm this winter.
This government needs to come up with a proper plan for energy. A new gas field that won’t start producing any gas for another three years, and which will be sold to us at market price, solves nothing. We need to fight Jackdaw so that this government is forced to look to real solutions that genuinely help the British people."
Earlier this evening we heard the news that, over a year after Shell sought approval, the UK Government and oil and gas regulator announced the approval of the Jackdaw gas field.
The Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED) has attached conditions to the approval. These conditions do nothing to mitigate the impact of the field beyond what Shell had already agreed to in its plan. Ourselves and others will be analysing the arguments in detail over the coming days.
However the broad takeaway is that the regulator has seemingly rolled over, reversing its original rejections by accepting an argument made by Shell about what it did and did not need to consider when developing the field. It has accepted Shell’s excuses for not changing the design of the project in a way that would decrease the significant adverse effect on climate. OPRED has refused to consider the emissions that will be produced when gas from Jackdaw is burned.
The fight goes on. We’re not going anywhere and will continue to explore every possible avenue to stop this field and all new fields from going ahead. We’re going to pressure the UK government to reverse the decision on Jackdaw, and use every tool we can to delay and eventually stop this field. We’ll tell the UK government that if they think they can approve oil and gas fields then they’ll have a massive fight on their hands. And that starts now.
Take action to #StopJackdaw here.
