Greenpeace launches legal challenge on Jackdaw gas field
GREENPEACE TAKES GOVERNMENT TO COURT OVER JACKDAW GAS FIELD: CAMPAIGNERS CLAIM IGNORING EMISSIONS IS UNLAWFUL
- Officials refused to assess emissions generated from burning Jackdaw gas, activists argue government failed in its legal duty.
- Campaigners call out government disconnect of approving Jackdaw in June and declaring national emergency over heatwaves in July.
- Gas from Jackdaw won’t belong to the UK, so won’t lower energy bills, but will generate more CO2 than the annual emissions of Ghana.
- Activists warn the government that they stand ready to take legal action every time it acts unlawfully to prioritise new fossil fuels.
GOVERNMENT today faces fresh legal action after it approved a new North Sea gas field without checking the climate damage of burning the gas extracted.
Greenpeace argues that the government failed in its legal duty to check the environmental impacts of Shell’s Jackdaw project by refusing to consider the damage caused by burning the gas extracted.
The legal challenge comes as the UK endures a summer of unprecedented heat waves, with the gas from Jackdaw, when burnt, set to generate more CO2 than the annual emissions of Ghana. And the Jackdaw gas will not even help ease the UK’s energy crisis, or have any effect on energy bills because it belongs to Shell, and will be sold on international markets to the highest bidder – something government officials have admitted.
Philip Evans, oil and gas transition campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “This Jackdaw approval is a scandal. The government knows that burning fossil fuels drives the climate crisis, yet they’re approving a new gas field in June, without proper climate checks, and declaring a national emergency over heatwaves in July.
“Meanwhile household bills are soaring, and the government is ignoring common sense solutions – like home insulation, heat pumps and cheap renewable power.
“We believe this is an astonishing dereliction of the government’s legal duty, and we won’t let it stand.
“So we’re taking legal action to stop Jackdaw, and whenever we see the government acting unlawfully to greenlight new fossil fuels we stand ready to fight in the courts.”
The government’s failures on climate and on the North Sea transition is becoming a regular legal headache for them. Just last week the High Court ruled that the government’s net zero strategy is inadequate and unlawful, and has given the government eight months to fix it.
And Jackdaw becomes the latest fossil fuel project bogged down in legal uncertainty.
In a separate legal action, Greenpeace is seeking permission from the Supreme Court to challenge BP’s permit to extract oil from the Vorlich field. The campaign group lost its initial bid against Vorlich in the Scottish Courts where the government unashamedly argued climate is “not relevant” to decisions around fossil fuel permits. Campaigners have also threatened legal action if the government approves a controversial new oil field at Cambo.
The government has tied itself in knots on this issue. Last year it promised a “climate compatibility checkpoint” would be applied to decisions on new fossil fuel licences, so that new exploration for fossil fuels could only go ahead if deemed to align with net zero. But the announcement was criticised when it transpired the government had created a loophole so that the new checkpoint would not apply to new permits for individual projects, like Cambo or Jackdaw.
And more recently Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, COP26 President Alok Sharma and Energy Minister Greg Hands have all stated publicly that ramping up UK gas production would have no significant impact on wholesale gas prices. Yet just a few months later Kwarteng granted the Jackdaw permit.
Courts in Scotland will now decide whether to grant Greenpeace permission to proceed with the legal challenge, which may be paused until after the separate Vorlich case is decided by the Supreme Court.
