Climate campaigners from grassroots group Fossil Free London march in Westminster, London, on Sunday 15 January 2023 to demand that the UK government reject Equinor’s plans to develop the Rosebank oilfield,
Campaigners have brought a four-metre whale model, banners and signs from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to Downing Street.
Rosebank is the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea. Fossil fuel giant Equinor has submitted a proposal to Westminster to develop Rosebank, which could produce almost 70,000 barrels of oil per day.
sovereignty
Much of this oil, like 80% of North Sea oil, is likely to be exported and sold overseas. Burning Rosebank’s oil and gas produces more carbon dioxide than the combined emissions of all 28 low-income countries in the world, including Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
It will also have disastrous effects on marine life, with the submarine pipeline running through protected areas: the Faroe-Shetland sponge belt, affecting fragile ecosystems and rare marine life such as deep-sea sponges and quahogs, a long-lived clam.
The protest against the four-metre whale, made of wicker and tissue paper, highlights that the field is being built for a migratory corridor for fin and sperm whales.
Oil major Equinor posted a pre-tax profit of more than $24 billion in the third quarter of 2022. However, the license will provide Rosebank with a huge UK taxpayer subsidy of over £500m. Rosebank is majority-owned by the Norwegian government, which owns a sovereign wealth fund worth about $1.3 trillion.
destroy the climate
Rosebank is almost three times the size of the proposed Cambo field, which drew criticism last year from the likes of Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon and Labour’s Keir Starmer. If approved, the license would allow Rosebank to continue producing oil until 2051, a year after the deadline for Britain’s legally binding net-zero emissions target.
In 2022, thousands of activists have forced oil giant Shell to withdraw from development of the Cambo field in the North Sea. The UK government has delayed approval for the Rosebank field. Activists aim to make sure it stops for good.
Joanna Warrington, a spokeswoman for Fossil Free London, said: “Millions of people are unable to pay their energy bills. Yet the UK government is still handing out the Norwegian oil tycoon with record profits in 2022. Blank cheque.
“The same week that Rishi Sunak hopped on a private jet instead of a two-hour train ride, the UK government was considering licensing another climate-damaging fossil fuel development. Honestly, it’s a joke.
sea area
“Even Shell realizes that new North Sea fields are not a good idea. The sclerotic UK government needs to wake up and smell the pollution. The British public doesn’t want to fund a Norwegian wealth fund. We want cheap, clean renewable energy To deal with the energy crisis, not make more oil executives rich on taxpayer dollars.”
Lauren MacDonald, climate justice campaigner and spokesperson for Uplift, said: “The importance and beauty of the North Sea as a marine habitat is often overlooked, but the truth is that it is teeming with life that is being threatened by oil-hungry corporations. threat.
“The Faroe-Shetland Strait, which Rosebank is about to develop, is of particular importance as a habitat for blue and minke whales and as a migration corridor for fin and sperm whales.
“The UK government claims to support new MPAs but continues to allow oil companies to destroy existing MPAs. This cannot be allowed to continue. The government needs to say no to Rosebank for the sake of our oceans.”
the author
Brendan Montague is ecologist.
