IS THE USE OF GAS STOPPING US FROM REACHING NET ZERO?
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) have published a report that has analysed the UK governments Heat and Building Strategy. The report has concluded that there are still funding and policy gaps in the Heat and building strategy and a need to cut the consumption of fossil fuels for heating.
The CCC has provided Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, with recommendations to not invest in new oil and gas fields but to rather invest in improving the energy efficiency and low carbon heat. The CCC also said the policies needed to drive improvements in energy efficiency in homes that are not fuel poor are “inadequate”, the report also noted the inadequacies in the energy efficiency in small commercial buildings.
Responding to the ongoing consultation on the proposed Climate Compatibility Checkpoint for oil and gas licensing in the North Sea, the CCC said it would support a “tighter limit” on oil and gas production with “strongest tests” and a “presumption against exploration”.
Rosie Rogers, Head of Oil and Gas Transition for Greenpeace UK, said: “Anyone who’s read this advice and thinks the North Sea’s future lies in oil and gas is utterly deluded, because it will take decades and won’t ease energy bills. What we need to tackle bills and climate change is home insulation, heat pumps, electric vehicles and renewable power. And while this letter is addressed to the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Chancellor Rishi Sunak needs to take on board this evidence based analysis, stop hoping to resurrect a declining fossil fuel industry and instead support the real solutions to the energy crisis as we approach the Spring Statement.”
Commenting on CCC’s advice to the government on the climate compatibility of new oil and gas fields in the UK, Jess Ralston, Analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “This advice makes clear that calls to re-open North Sea drilling or fracking are red herring solutions to the current gas crisis. Investing in oil and gas now would keep us locked into the volatile global gas market for longer and make no significant difference to bills. As we’ve seen in recent years decommissioning rigs comes with a large taxpayer bill, £3.7 billion over just four years.”
Andy Prendergast, GMB Union National Secretary, said: “No politician should rule out new fields, we’d be cutting our nose off to spite our face to get to net zero by relying on Russian and Qatari gas. As we all know, net zero does not actually mean zero carbon the UK will still be using oil and gas in 2050 under all the projections. Tens of thousands of jobs are linked to the sector; we need a long term plan for quality decommissioning jobs and linking continued production to the highest environmental and labour standards.”