UK has approved several fossil fuel projects since Cop26, analysis finds
Several major UK fossil fuel projects have been approved since Cop26 concluded, an analysis has found, while about 50 schemes are thought to be in the pipeline between now and 2025.
Three separate schemes have received some form of approval from government bodies during the six-month period since Boris Johnson’s administration hosted the UN climate summit in Glasgow. Campaigners say his government is reaching a crunch point, with three major onshore schemes currently being appealed and the levelling up minister, Michael Gove, set to rule on a number of such applications over the next six weeks.
In January, ministers gave the green light to the Abigail oil and gas field off the east coast of Scotland, while a coal licence extension was granted in south Wales later that month. Plans to continue and expand oil production at West Newton, east Yorkshire, were then approved by local government in March.
It is thought a large number of new North Sea oil and gas developments that hold a licence but have not yet received final consents could soon go ahead without undergoing the “climate compatibility” checks announced by the UK government last year, when other countries had ruled out issuing new oil and gas licences altogether. Analysis carried out by the climate campaigners Uplift suggests up to 46 such projects could be approved between 2022 and 2025.
A new licensing round has been announced this autumn for offshore oil and gas, while ministers have spoken of “fast-tracking” fields amid escalating pressure within the cabinet and from backbench Conservative MPs over the government’s net zero plans.
“In just six months the UK has gone from touting itself as a climate leader to championing fossil fuels, the very thing that is driving
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