Louise Haigh MP, please help Stop Rosebank!

I have just written to my MP to ask her to stop Rosebank. Here is my letter. I will let you know her response. You can use the template here to write to your MP.

Dear Louise Haigh

Congratulations on your recent election as my representative in Parliament. As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to stop the controversial Rosebank oil field and all new oil and gas projects and to champion a rapid and just transition to renewable energy. Despite widespread opposition, the last government approved the Rosebank oil field, the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK’s North Sea.

Here’s why we need to stop Rosebank:

1. Scientists and experts have warned time and time again that we cannot allow any more new oil and gas if we are to keep within safe climate limits. Just burning the fossil fuels in existing UK oil and gas fields will contribute to pushing us past “safe” climate limits. Adding new reserves, like Rosebank, will bust UK climate targets and push us closer to more parts of our world becoming uninhabitable.

Global temperatures are now 1.6C above pre-industrial times. New research suggests we may have already exceeded so-called “safe limits”.

Worrying new research released this week (https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12447) shows that the land is now emitting as much CO2 as it absorbs. Photosynthesis decreases as temperature increases, but respiration (plants releasing CO2 into the atmosphere) increases. Industrial farming means carbon previously locked up in the soil now escapes. The increase in wildfires, burning trees that have been absorbing carbon for decades and the increase in drought leading to plant decay now means the land is giving off as much CO2 as it is absorbing.

Up to now the land has been absorbing about one-quarter of our emissions, the sea another quarter and the rest pollutes our atmosphere. As the carbon sinks become less effective and indeed become sources of carbon, atmospheric CO2 will increase enormously.

Atmospheric CO2 continues to rise. It is now 426 parts per million. When I was born it was just 316ppm so it has increased by 35% in my lifetime. This increase will speed up as the land and ocean carbon sinks become less effective.

Other research reveals we are now perilously close to the AMOC shutting down. This would result in the UK’s climate becoming extremely cold, so cold we would not be able to grow crops. Please see this vital research. https://tos.org/oceanography/article/is-the-atlantic-overturning-circulation-approaching-a-tipping-point

2. We know that new oil and gas projects like the Rosebank oil field won’t lower our energy bills, or make our energy supply more secure. Most of the UK’s oil and gas is sold on the open international market to the highest bidder, bringing in profit for oil and gas companies whilst millions of people across the country struggle to pay their energy bills.
3. The public just elected a government that pledged to build a clean, British energy system and tackle the climate crisis. There is a strong popular mandate for the transition away from oil and gas to renewable energy – to create new jobs, lower bills, boost the economy and ensure a liveable climate. People voted for change, not more of the same.
4. New fields like Rosebank won’t stem the decline of jobs in the North Sea, because the North Sea basin is in decline. Over the past decade, the number of jobs supported by the oil and gas industry in the UK has more than halved, despite new fields being approved. In a declining basin, the only way to create long-term, secure jobs is to invest in a just transition and support workers into clean energy industries that have a future.
5. Rosebank is right next to a marine protected area and threatens endangered species that call it home. Loud drilling, seismic blasting and construction at Rosebank will disturb dolphins, whales and fish – potentially disrupting their behaviour and migration, and even causing deaths. The pipeline needed to transport the tiny amount of gas reserves would cut through a specially protected seabed – the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt. It could harm extraordinary creatures like clams that can live for over 500 years – some of the oldest animals on the planet.

Instead of new fossil fuel projects we urgently need a plan for a just and properly funded transition for oil and gas workers and the communities that depend on them, and real solutions to fix our broken energy system. The approval of Rosebank is also being challenged in the courts as unlawful.

Please take a moment to read the full MP briefing about Rosebank and the need to phase out North Sea oil and gas here: https://www.stopcambo.org.uk/updates/mp-briefing-rosebank-oil-field

As my representative in parliament, I call on you to:

1. Be vocal about your opposition to the Rosebank oil field in Parliament, in the press and on social media.
2. Advocate for Rosebank to be rejected, should the court case against Rosebank’s approval be successful and Equinor resubmit it for government approval.
3. Support an end to new oil and gas projects, in line with what is urgently required to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown.
4. Back a plan for a properly funded just transition for oil and gas workers and the communities that depend on them. This plan must get into the specifics of where and how jobs will be created, backed up with investment, as well as making it easier for workers to retrain, providing job guarantees, and improving the quality of offshore energy jobs.
5. Focus on the real solutions to tackle Britain’s broken energy system, including scaling up renewables and insulating our leaky homes.

For a safe climate and affordable energy, we need to stop expanding oil and gas production. As we face climate impacts in our area and with many millions in energy debt across the country, we are looking to you to address the climate crisis and fix our broken energy system. Will you be the champion that our constituency needs?

If you would like to know more about what is needed for a just transition, see a briefing here: https://platformlondon.org/app/uploads/2023/05/Parliamentary-Briefing-Paper-JT-July-24.pdf

Yours sincerely

Graham Wroe