World leaders and governments have their part to play. The IPCC has warned that: “Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large-scale reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees will be beyond reach”. If emissions don’t fall over the next two decades, then a 3C rise looks likely and if they continue to rise then the world is on track for temperatures of 4C to 5C which would be catastrophic.
Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, said: “This is not the first generation of world leaders to be warned by scientists about the gravity of the climate crisis, but they’re the last that can afford to ignore them. The increasing frequency, scale and intensity of climate disasters that have scorched and flooded many parts of the world in recent months is the result of past inaction. Unless world leaders finally start to act on these warnings, things will get much, much worse.”
Emissions from fossil fuels are the dominant cause of global warming and currently 68% of global CO2 emissions come from fossil fuel and industry. The UK onshore industry regularly argues that domestically produced fossil fuels have a lower carbon footprint, compared with some imports. It also points to a potential role for UK onshore methane in producing fossil hydrogen.
Antonia Guterres said of the latest reports: “This is a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”
Yet in the UK plans are in place by Rathlin Energy for an expansion of exploration and production in Holderness, to industrialise the East Yorkshire countryside into an oil and gas field, developing brand new sources of fossil fuels. Onshore, as well as Rathlin Energy expansion proposals, there are schemes going through the planning system for oil and gas operations in Surrey and the Isle of Wight (UK Oil & Gas plc), Rotherham (Ineos), Cheshire (IGas). Angus Energy is planning to revive gas production at Saltfleet and Egdon Resources is preparing for oil production at Wressle, near Scunthorpe.
In January, an open letter signed by 80,000 people was delivered to Downing Street urging the UK Government to stop the vast new Cambo oil field off Shetland. The field contains around 800 million barrels of oil and the first phase of its development would create pollution equivalent to 16 coal fired power stations.
If the Government wants to show they respect the world’s leading scientists on climate chaos, they can start by cancelling the Cambo oil field, scrapping the coal mine in Cumbria, rejecting all other oil and gas licenses and end UK funding for the mega-gas project in Mozambique, fracking in China, as well as support of the expansion of oil and gas industries in Brazil, Mexico, India and Myanmar. They need to sit down with workers and communities to plan a fair transition away from oil and gas.
World leaders and governments need to take action. However, we can all play a part:
We can lobby our MP to get support for legislation on the following:
- Stop all future fossil fuel exploration.
- Remove all subsidies and incentives from the fossil fuel industry.
- Promote renewable energy sources and sustainable initiatives.
- Change regulations to ensure that only renewable and sustainable methods and materials are used in new builds and infrastructure projects.
We can object to all oil and gas planning applications: The more people object, the more chance it will be stopped. We encourage everyone, everywhere to take five minutes to submit a one-word comment: Object.
For more information about Sherwood Forest Friends of the Earth, we’re on Facebook at: Sherwood Forest FoE, or email sffofe@btinternet.com.
Pauline Meechan
Sherwood Forest Friends of the Earth