Petro Nationalism: Die Baby Die

The Green MP Caroline Lucas noticed the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme did the same thing: “Did @BBCr4today really just do a whole package about drilling in the N Sea without once even mentioning #climate change? And not having anyone challenging the one-sided claims of former BP boss? So irresponsible.”

Not only was this completely disingenuous, a total media failure to show impartiality about “energy experts” – it was like a clip from Don’t Look Up.

For the avoidance of any doubt, in January 2025, a little over a year ago, the Court of Session in Edinburgh sided with campaigners and climate experts in ruling that the original decisions to permit Rosebank and Jackdaw were unlawful, as they had not taken into account the carbon emissions created by burning any oil and gas produced.

Tessa Khan, from the campaign group Uplift which has been at the forefront of the campaign to stop Rosebank, said at the time the court ruling was a significant milestone. “This … means that Rosebank cannot go ahead without accounting for its enormous climate harm,” she said.

At the time Philip Evans, from Greenpeace, which with Uplift challenged Rosebank and Jackdaw, described the judgment as “a historic win”.

“The age of governments approving new drilling sites by ignoring their climate impacts is over,” he said. “The courts have agreed with what climate campaigners have said all along: Rosebank and Jackdaw are unlawful, and their full climate impacts must now be properly considered.”

Campaigners had argued that there was no economic, energy security or climate rationale for drilling for more oil and gas in the North Sea.

The vast majority of any oil produced is sold on the international markets and so does not add to energy security for British consumers, and repeated statements from the International Energy Agency have said no new oil and gas exploration should take place if the world is to limit global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial temperatures.

Instead, trade unions and climate justice campaigners argue that the government should invest in renewable energy to meet climate goals, safeguard oil workers and their communities, and provide cheap, secure energy.

None of that has changed, despite the BBC’s disinformation. You can read the Court of Session’s ruling by Lord Ericht here:

First of all, despite Drivetime and the Today programme’s framing and omission of reality, there is no material change to the reality described in the Edinburgh ruling.

As Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, and the author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide put it [Of course we shouldn’t drill for more oil in the North Sea – we cancelled further exploitation for a reason]:

“The usual suspects in Reform and the Tory party have used the war as an excuse to renew demands that the North Sea be sucked dry of its remaining oil and gas, in order – they say – to end reliance on fossil fuel imports and to guarantee energy security. More sensible heads have argued that the North Sea basin is a field that is way past peak production, and that has only limited amounts of oil and gas left, and that energy security can only be reached if we move further and faster on renewables. Extraordinarily, the real reason no further significant exploitation of North Sea oil and gas is planned seems to have been entirely forgotten, or at least set aside.”

“Fossil fuels are not being shut down in favour of renewables on a whim, or even to protect the country from the sort of shocks foreign wars bring, but because we are at the height of a climate emergency that demands every country slash its greenhouse gas discharges. The UK is already struggling to meet a 2030 emissions reduction target of 68% compared with 1990 levels, and is off track to achieve net zero emissions in 2050. Any renaissance of homegrown fossil fuel usage would blow a hole through these already shaky ambitions.”

“Just because all eyes are turned to the Gulf doesn’t mean the climate breakdown has gone away. Far from it. The reality is that our predicament is getting worse, almost by the day. The first three months of the year have seen record-breaking heat across much of the US, which would have been all but impossible in the absence of global heating. Meanwhile, floods have devastated Hawaii, northern Australia, and the Gulf states of Oman and the UAE. In England and Wales, February this year was the warmest on record, following on from record winter rainfall in many parts.”

“The long and the short of it is that we are at a critical point in the climate emergency, and cannot afford to be distracted by ill-informed calls for more domestic oil and gas. We are on course to smash through the 1.5C dangerous climate change guardrail within the next three years. This coincides with the best estimate temperature at which key climate tipping points will be crossed, most notably the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, which would ultimately mean a 10-metre sea-level rise.”

“While we continue to dither about the rights and wrongs of reopening the North Sea to further drilling, global heating shows no such tendency. The worst possible news was revealed in a Nature paper published just a week after the bombing of Iran started, which is that the rate of global heating has been supercharged since 2015, and is now almost double what it was in the 1970s. The current rate – of close to 0.35C a decade – means that without drastic action on emissions, we will see the 2C limit shattered as soon as the late 2030s, and no end in sight.”

As climate campaigner Mike Hudema has noted: “We’re on track for 4C well before this century is done. Sometimes, being heartbroken and outraged is the only rational response” 

Closer to home, our own energy and economy experts are equally unequivocal. Here’s Laurie Macfarlane:

“Even as North Sea production dwindles, the prospect of opening up streams of British oil in these newly turbulent times has begun to animate a renewed debate between environmentalists and the Trump-inspired set keen to “drill baby drill”. What is often missed in this debate, however, is that North Sea oil and gas is now a chimera, as supplies dwindle and accessing what remains becomes ever more difficult and expensive. Yet the promise of offshore bounties remains tantalizing close in the political imagination, fuelling all manner of fantasies. These are made all the more powerful by instilling a belief in the popular imagination of left-wing forces blocking Britain from once more becoming rich and energy secure.”

But he also notes that: “The history of the North Sea demonstrates this leveraging of energy for national identity. Importantly, however, it has not been confined to the politics free market right; it has form on the left too, providing inspiration for both Scottish and British nationalists alike.”

The old 1970s ‘Its Scotland’s Oil’ posters now have a hauntological feel to them.

The politicians are weak and spineless in the face of the rise of Reform UK and the war against Net Zero, and this now seems to include both John Swinney and Ed Miliband.