by Catherine Fish
On Saturday, 6th September, people in Sheffield joined the Stop Rosebank National Day of Action. Turning up to say: Rosebank is a bad deal for us all.
What is Rosebank?
Rosebank is the UK’s largest undeveloped oil and gas field located about 80 miles off the Shetland coast in the North Sea, containing an estimated 500 million barrels of reserves. The Norwegian oil giant Equinor (which is majority-owned by the Norwegian government) and Ithaca Energy are developing the field.
What did Sheffield say on 6th September?
Event organiser, Jemima, said: We marked the day of action with an outreach stall in the Peace Gardens. We had lots of interesting conversations with passers-by about Rosebank, the majority of whom were very concerned about the impact that Rosebank would have on the climate. 50 people wrote a postcard to their MP asking them to pledge to oppose the Rosebank oil field and advocate for a properly funded just transition for oil and gas workers.
But: Why stop Rosebank?
Rosebank would be a disaster for our climate whilst doing nothing to lower our bills, save jobs, or make our energy supply more secure. Rosebank is also a human rights issue: some of Rosebank’s vast oil profits could flow to the Delek Group, a company that operates in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine and majority-owns Ithaca Energy, one of Rosebank’s developers. The decision to approve or reject Rosebank will soon go back to the government; we need them to listen to the widespread public opposition to Rosebank and make the right choice for people and planet.
To stop Rosebank, we need to shift public opinion. The far right and fossil fuel lobby have been flooding the media with lies and climate scepticism for far too long. And here’s the good news: we have something they don’t. The truth.
When you connect the truth about Rosebank to what people are already feeling – high bills, extreme weather, political neglect – it cuts through. We need to reach beyond the usual audiences, even those who have not heard about Rosebank before.
The facts:
Carbon Emissions
Burning Rosebank’s reserves would create more than 200 million tonnes of CO2 – that’s more climate pollution than the 700 million people living in the world’s poorest nations produce in a year. Yet, we are already overshooting critical climate limits. The damage that decades of burning fossil fuels have done to our planet is severe and only getting worse, whether that’s ever-more-frequent flooding and storms in the UK and Scotland, or lethal temperatures and wildfires around the world. 2024 was the first full year that the world’s average temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Myths about Energy Security
Recent claims from Offshore Energies UK that “half of the UK’s oil and gas demands could be met from the North Sea” are extremely misleading.
After 60 years of drilling, the North Sea is a hyper-mature basin with reserves in terminal decline. The UK has burned most of its gas. Most of what’s left in the ageing basin oil, the majority of which is exported, therefore doing very little to contribute to our energy security.
Tax and fossil fuel investment
For years, the UK has presided over one of the most generous tax regimes for oil and gas, which has led to rampant industry profiteering to the extent that major oil companies, like Shell, would end up receiving more money in tax refunds than they pay in taxes.
The vast majority of offshore oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea are not shifting investment away from fossil fuels. Three-quarters (74%) of North Sea operators plan to invest solely in oil and gas production between now and 2030.
Climate Change Committee advice
The Climate Change Committee states that “UK policy on future oil and gas production should be aligned with Global Stocktake calls to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels”. While acknowledging that the UK will continue to need some oil and gas until it reaches net zero, the Committee is clear that: ‘this does not in itself justify the development of new North Sea fields’.
Prioritising a transition to Clean energy
As we roll out major offshore wind projects, the future of jobs in the North Sea should be in building the industries that will make those wind turbines in the UK.
The UK Government has put clean energy and climate action at the heart of its agenda, with the Prime Minister making a strong statement that “Climate action is at the heart of this government’s mission for the protection and prosperity of Britain and the world.” Now the government has an opportunity to put its climate leadership into practice by ending new extraction in line with climate science. We can and must be ambitious about moving past oil and gas production, while empowering and supporting workers and communities who rely on the industry for their livelihoods.
In Conclusion
“Rosebank is not the answer to energy security, lower bills or jobs. It would simply make obscenely rich oil companies even richer, while increasing the dangers for the rest of us.”
Sources: Uplift: https://www.upliftuk.org/about
Stop Rosebank campaign: https://www.stopcambo.org.uk/
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