9 January 2024 – The UK government has introduced the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill which aims at maximising oil and gas production in the North Sea. The bill has caused a stir and drew criticism from all sides.
The government has brought a new bill to maximise oil and gas from the North Sea to the House of Commons. No. 10 has said that the bill aims at giving confidence to investors and also to ensure the UK is less dependent on imported energy.
If the bill were to be passed, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), who regulates the industry, would have to offer licences for new oil and gas projects in the North Sea on a yearly basis.
However, the bill has been criticised from all sides, including some Tory MPs.
Bill Not Necessary NSTA Says
One criticism has been levelled at the introduction of the bill by the industry regulator that it will impact. The NSTA called the bill unnecessary, because it said that it already has the appropriate powers it needs.
The NSTA is able to issue new licences whenever needed with no restrictions in terms of how many it can make available per year.
The regulator also pointed out that annual licencing rounds have taken place for most of the past ten years. So the bill would not change anything and is therefore not needed.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change (Climate Change APPG), a cross-party group of 30 MPs and peers, has called on the government to withdraw the bill in a letter.
The group said that the bill would not, as the government claims, provide energy security for the UK, nor would it reduce energy bills for households. The only thing it will do, the letter said, is to risk the UK not achieving its climate and nature targets.
Instead, the group calls on the government to implement actions that will actually deliver energy security and lower energy bills. They want the government to ramp up the supply of low-cost renewable energy and put in place measures that will improve energy efficiency.
Conservatives Zac Goldsmith and Chris Skidmore MP have signed the letter, as well as Laouber MPs and the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper MP.
Mr Skidmore has gone a step further, he has announced that he will resign earlier due to the release of the bill.
I can no longer stand by. The climate crisis that we face is too important to politicise or to ignore.
Chris Skidmore, Conservative MP
Sir Alok Sharma, a Conservative peer and former cabinet minister who was COP26 president in Glasgow in 2021, has also spoken out against the bill.
While he didn’t put his signature to the letter, he said the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill would make it look like the government is withdrawing from climate action.
Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill Opposes Climate Pledge Made At COP28
At COP28, the world, including the UK, has agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. The COP28 agreement to this effect was signed by the UK. However, the bill opposes this agreement, according to the Climate Change APPG.
By committing to develop new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, the government is doing the opposite of transitioning away from fossil fuels, so the group.
Even the Climate Change Committe (CCC), the government’s own climate advisors, has said that no new oil and gas projects should be developed.
While the committee has said the UK will need to use oil and gas until it reaches net-zero, it has also made clear that this doesn’t mean the country should develop new oil and gas fields.
At the same time as the government is focussing on maximising oil and gas from the North Sea, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to deliver clean power for the UK by 2030.
He committed to spend £28bn a year to achieve this target, because he said that this is the only way to deliver energy independence and security as well as lower energy bills for households in the long-term.
Our Opinion – What is This Bill About?
So the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill isn’t actually needed, as the NSTA has pointed out. So why is the government introducing a bill that wouldn’t change anything?
We are in an election year, with a general election likely to happen in the second half of the year. The government is therefore in campaign mode and everything they say and do from now on has the single aim of gaining voters.
It seems that since they have scored a surprise victory at the bi-election for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, they have rowed back on climate actions.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have said the election was decided on the issue of the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZs) in London.
The government has seen this result as a sign that the public doesn’t want climate change action, ignoring the fact that only a fraction of the public voted in this election.
And in order to gain votes, the PM has started to water down climate change targets and focus on new oil and gas developments.
What he is also doing is drawing a clear line between the Conservatives and Labour. Keir Stamer has made it very clear that his party will drive forward climate action if he gets into power.
So Rishi Sunak is putting our planet and the future of our children on the line to gain votes. Rather than doing what’s right, he does what will keep him in power. And that’s why he introduced a pointless bill that will not change a thing.
