Eighteen Christian groups have co-signed a petition to the Prime Minister, urging him to halt the exploration of new oil and gas at the Rosebank oil field off the Shetland coast.
The letter, addressed to Sir Keir Starmer and the Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, was delivered on the same day that the International Court of Justice delivered a historic ruling, declaring that UN states have a duty to prevent fossil fuels from causing climate breakdown.
The letter called for the Labour government to show the climate leadership promised in its manifesto, warning that the proposed exploration of new oil and gas is incompatible with safe climate limits.
The Revd James Grote, who attended the department to deliver the letter, said: “Climate change has now become today’s emergency in Europe. If we are to continue to live in hope, we have to act now and move away from burning fossil fuels. This is our only hope for our one and only planet. Agreeing to the development of the Rosebank oil field would be a step closer to despair. The British government must give us hope.”
Earlier this year, the previous Conservative government’s approval of Rosebank was overturned in the courts, after it was found that developers had not accounted for the emissions produced by burning the oil and gas extracted from the field. The emissions expected from Rosebank are so significant that they exceed the combined emissions of the world’s 28 poorest countries.
The court ruling was hailed as a significant legal win in the fight to end fossil fuel production in the UK.
In June, the government announced new rules for approving oil and gas projects. With these changes, Rosebank’s lead developer, Norwegian oil giant Equinor, is expected to submit a new application that will include the calculation of the project’s lifetime emissions.
Mark Francis, Local Groups Coordinator for Christian Climate Action, told Premier Christian News: “We hope this will have an impact on the Prime Minister. We know he has various different influences affecting his decisions, but for us this is very significant.
“We're called to care for the planet. We're called to care for our brothers and sisters in the global south, who are already experiencing severe difficulties due to this climate emergency.”