Labour fossil fuel climbdown: new drilling will be devastating for people and planet
Labour’s backtracking on new oil and gas drilling will have a devastating impact for people and planet, says Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie.
Patrick was responding to Labour’s plans to water down their manifesto commitment to no new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, while introducing a new levy on electric cars.
The newly published North Sea Future Plan will allow fossil fuel giants to expand oil and gas drilling at - or near to - existing sites.
Patrick said:
“This news will be celebrated by some of the world’s biggest polluters, who are already raking in massive profits while our world burns.
“Any move to allow more new drilling will have a devastating impact for people and planet. It is a U-Turn that will have catastrophic consequences for our climate.
“There is no environmentally friendly way to expand drilling in our North Sea, and it is utterly reckless for Labour to be backtracking like this.
“The climate crisis is getting worse, but our governments are retreating and doing even less to stop it. We’ve seen nothing but climbdowns, U-turns and backtracking from both Holyrood and Westminster.
“The emergence of climate change denial extremists like Reform has shifted them even further away from the action that they know is necessary."
Patrick added:
“Our energy future must be based on clean, green renewable energy, which is the best, safest and cheapest energy available.
“Scotland has a huge renewables potential, with the chance to create tens of thousands of high quality jobs for the future and ending our dependence on volatile fossil fuel prices. But that won’t happen if we are carving up even more of our North Sea for polluters.”