Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
28th September 2023
Rosebank oil field decision
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing as a group of organisations, interest groups and businesses from across the UK, who together represent millions of British citizens united in a vision for a Britain which grasps the opportunities of net zero, the transition away from fossil fuels, and who want to see nature and our precious oceans thrive.
We want communities and regions across the UK to benefit from warmer insulated homes, secure and future-proofed jobs, cheaper and cleaner energy and an environment bursting with life. We want the UK to once again lead internationally, showing the tangible benefits of a just transition away from fossil fuels, and treasuring our marine environments.
We are therefore dismayed by the UK government's decision to approve the Rosebank oil field, and urge you to reconsider. Rosebank alone has the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil equivalent, enough to produce as much CO2 as the annual CO2 emissions of the 28 lowest-income countries combined - many of which are already suffering the worst effects of climate breakdown, such as countries in the Horn of Africa, which are experiencing a deadly hunger crisis due to severe and prolonged drought. With this decision, the government is locking the UK into yet more fossil fuels, just as we must be accelerating away from them.
Further, the impact that this vast development will have on the marine environment for hundreds of miles around the site could be devastating, ranging from the destruction of precious marine habitats through to disruption of dolphins and whales, as well as potentially compromising fisheries that are already struggling to avoid collapse due to overfishing. Rosebank therefore poses an unacceptable risk to not only the unique and precious wildlife that lives in UK seas, but also the communities that depend on them. This decision makes a mockery of the promises we’ve made globally to protect 30% of our land and seas by 2030.
At a time when so many households across the UK are struggling with the cost of living, Rosebank’s owners Equinor and Ithaca Energy are set to receive a tax break worth £3.75 billion. Whilst the UK government rightly wants to secure energy supplies, Rosebank is 90 percent oil likely for export. The best way to secure energy, and to bring down bills is to rapidly expand energy efficiency measures whilst boosting reliable and cheap renewables in harmony with nature’s recovery.
We urge you to listen to the science, and leading institutions such as the International Energy Agency, and IPCC and end new fossil fuel developments. We urge you to instead set the UK on a trajectory for a cleaner, brighter and secure future.
Yours sincerely,
Tessa Khan, Director, Uplift
Dr Amy McDonnell & Oliver Sidorczuk, Co-Directors, Zero Hour UK
Isaac Beevor, Co-Director, Climate Emergency UK
Hannah Martin & Fatima Ibrahim, Co-Directors, Green New Deal Rising
Jemima Hartshorn, Founder and Director, Mums for Lungs
Hugo Tagholm, Executive Director and Vice President, Oceana in the United Kingdom
Sam Ward, Head of Climate Cymru
Dr Karen Barrass, Founder and Director, Climate Insights
Nigel Harris, CEO, Tearfund
Robert Palmer, Tax Justice UK
Demi Taylor & Chris Nelson, Co-Directors, London Surf / Film Festival
Joanna Ruxton MBE
Harry Eckman, CEO, World Cetacean Alliance
Lauren MacCallum - General Manager - Protect Our Winters UK
Natalie Fee, Founder, & Harriet Bosnell, CEO - City to Sea
Revd Dr Darrell D. Hannah, Chair, Operation Noah
Daniel Winterstein, Director, Good-Loop Ltd
Mary Rice, Executive Director, EIA UK
Carmen Martinez, Coordinator, Scottish Women’s Budget Group
Jo Pike, CEO, Scottish Wildlife Trust
David Hillman, Director, Stamp Out Poverty
Lizzy Roberts - Director, Seahorse Environmental
David Cowdrey, Director of External Affairs, The MCS Foundation
Louise Hazan, Co-Director, Tipping Point UK
Jacki Sime - Director, Pembrokeshire Seal Research Trust
Giles Bristow, CEO Surfers Against Sewage
Claire Wallerstein, Director, Cornwall Climate Care
Peter Kelly, Director, Poverty Alliance
Aileen McLeod, Interim Director, Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland
Dr Shanon Shah, Director, Faith for the Climate
Sally Hamilton, CEO, ORCA
Most Rev Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
Rev Ruth Harvey, Leader, the Iona Community
Linzi Hawkin, Founder, Protect Blue
Johan Frijns, Executive Director BankTrack, Netherlands
Sophie Cowen, CEO, Switch It Green
Shane Tomlinson and Nick Mabey, co-CEOs, E3G
Maya Mailer, Co-Founder, Mothers Rise Up
Bex Band, Founder and Director, Love Her Wild CIC
Barry Fisher, Chief Executive, Keep Scotland Beautiful
Angus Hardie, Director, Scottish Community Alliance
Miriam Turner and Hugh Knowles, Co-Executive Directors, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Paul Coulson, Director of Operations, Institute of Fisheries Management
Dr Cal Major, CEO, and Lorna Evans, COO, Seaful
Chris Butler-Stroud, CEO, Whale and Dolphin Conservation
Craig Dunn, COO, SCCAN (Scottish Communities Climate Action Network)
Tom Clark, CEO, Climate Acceptance Studios
Sam Oliveira, Director, Reform Radio
Asad Rehman, Executive Director, War on Want
Professor Peter Newell, Sussex university and research director, Rapid Transition Alliance
Sophie Marple, Co-founder MCAN
Paul Parker, Recording Clerk, Quakers in Britain
Mary Gutierrez, Director, Earth Action, Inc. United States
Thomas Meinert Larsen, campaign coordinator, AnsvarligFremtid, Denmark
Hirra Khan Adeogun, co-director, Possible
Janis Patterson, Co-ordinator, Ullapool Sea Savers
Beccy Speight, Chief Executive, RSPB
Areeba Hamid and Will McCallum Co-Executive Directors Greenpeace UK
Elizabeth Bast, Executive Director, Oil Change International
Carys Boughton, Campaign Coordinator, Fossil Free Parliament
Dan Jarvis, Director of Welfare and Conservation, British Divers Marine Life Rescue
Alison Lomax, Director, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust
Lorraine Currie, Director of Integral Human Development, SCIAF
Nick Marple, Co-founder, Gower St
Helen Meech, Executive Director, The Climate Coalition
Jessica Kleczka, Director of Research, New Zero World
Becky Kenton-Lake, Coalition Manager, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland
Ruth London, Director, Fuel Poverty Action
Frances Fox, Founder & UK Director, Climate Live
Dr Richard Benwell, CEO, Wildlife & Countryside Link
Roger Mortlock, CEO, CPRE, the countryside charity
Steve Trent, CEO, Environmental Justice Foundation
Sophie Neuburg, Director, MEDACT
Lieutenant-Colonel Alan M Read, Secretary for Business Administration, The Salvation Army UK and Ireland
Simon Francis, Coordinator, End Fuel Poverty Coalition
Sarah McArthur, Tom Wilson and Emily Marsay, Directors, UKYCC
Rowan Ryrie, Co-Founder, Parents for Future UK
Liz Murray, Head of Scottish campaigns, Global Justice Now
Elaine Mulcahy, Director, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
Melissa Green, Chief Executive, National Federation of Women’s Institutes (The WI)
Gwen Hines, CEO, Save the Children UK
Sandy Luk, CEO, Marine Conservation Society
Sampson Low, Head of Policy, UNISON
Stephen Smellie, Depute Convenor, UNISON Scotland
Catherine Pettengell, Executive Director, Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK)
Jan Shortt, General Secretary, National Pensioners Convention
Cathy Runciman, Executive Director, EarthPercent
Alison Stuart, Director, Aberdeen Climate Action
Zanagee Artis, Executive Director, Zero Hour International
Gillian Needham, Chair, NESCAN Hub
Laura Clarke, CEO, ClientEarth
Laura D’Henin-Ivers, Co-Director, Hope for the Future
Tom Kay, Founder, Finisterre
Will Sheane, CEO, Finisterre
Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO, Oxfam GB
Kate Norgrove, Executive Director, Advocacy and Campaigns, WWF-UK
James Wallace, CEO, River Action
Dominic Kavakeb, CO-Director of Campaigns, Global Witness
Equity for a Green New Deal
Claire O’Neill, CEO, A Greener Future (AGF)
Beth Thoren, Environmental Action & Initiatives Director, EMEA Patagonia
Cara Naden, Director Avalon Community Energy, Somerset Climate Action Network, Zero Carbon World
Frances Guy, CEO, Scotland’s International development Alliance
Augusto Duran Duran, Coordinador regional para el Tratado sobre Combustibles Fósiles, MOCICC
Olivia Fuchs, Eco Dharma Network coordinator
Robin Wells, Director Fossil Free London
Centre for Citizens Conserving Environment & Management (CECIC)
Matthew Hay, Director, Reforesting Scotland
