After our recent well-attended public meeting in Wymondham with George Freeman MP and a cross-party panel, we're currently planning our next event. In the meantime please sign our UK parliament petition calling on the government to:

Prevent all new North Sea oil and gas exploration

See here to sign - please sign and share widely!

During the Liz Truss government, a new licensing round was initiated to allow exploration for new oil and gas sources in the North Sea. This was despite the UN Secretary General referring to new fossil fuel infrastructure as “moral and economic madness”, and a large consensus among all published studies that developing new oil and gas fields is incompatible with the 1.5C target.

Over 2000 people have so far signed the UK parliament petition, launched by Climate Hope Action In Norfolk, which seeks to cancel the licensing round and prevent all exploration for new oil and gas reserves in the North Sea.

The issuing of these licences is now being challenged in the courts.

Stephen Little, Secretary of CHAIN said: “It completely undermines any efforts of the UK and others to encourage much poorer nations to move away from fossil fuels. For countries to use energy security to justify exploiting their own oil and gas reserves would destroy any hopes of dealing with the climate crisis. And given the expected timescale before operation, the issuing of these licences would do nothing to address the cost of living crisis.

Many other measures brought in during Liz Truss’s brief tenure, such as the resumption of fracking, have been scrapped and we’re hoping this will go the same way.”

The petition can be accessed at nonewnorthseaoil.co.uk

Useful links:

The petition

The Licensing Round

UK starts new round of licences for North Sea oil and gas (FT, 7 Oct)

Uk ministers face legal challenge over North Sea oil and gas licences (Guardian, 12 Dec)