If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal.

Robert Smith asks why we shouldn’t develop the UK’s remaining coal reserves (Sheffield Star 3/10/23). He is right to wish for an energy policy where we become far less reliant on other countries to keep our lights turned on. But we can have that by investing in renewable technologies that will be cheaper and far less polluting than coal or oil. Carbon Capture and Storage has not been proven to work yet at anything like the scale that would be required.

Robert needs to understand the severity of our climate crisis. If the world does not rapidly reduce its carbon emissions we face an unimaginably bleak future. We are already seeing how this will play out with widespread droughts, wildfires, storms and flooding, destroying crops and causing people to flee their homes. It is true other countries like China are continuing to expand fossil fuels, but just because they are committing climate crimes it does not mean we should follow suit. We have to lead by example.

The International Energy Agency is clear that exploitation and development of new oil and gas fields must stop and no new coal-fired power stations can be built if the world is to stay within so-called “safe” limits of global heating and meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. I say “so-called” because we are already experiencing more and more dangerous extreme weather events. But in this case “safe” refers to not reaching tipping points that would effectively break the thermostat of our planet, creating a climate more like Mars. We are already exceeding 1.5C of heating in one in every three days. 

Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director and one of the world’s foremost energy economists, said two years ago: “If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal.”

Robert Smith’s letter

You can help get our message out by writing to the local press, perhaps responding to one of our articles. Sheffield Star address is letters@thestar.co.uk and Sheffield Telegraph is angela.furniss@nationalworld.com

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