Prime Minister Rishi Sunak supported plans to explore an oil and gas field off the UK coast, calling it “pragmatic and proportionate” towards net zero emissions.
The Sunac administration is anticipated to approve Rosbank, the UK’s largest undiscovered oil and gas resource, near the Scottish Shetland Islands and other North Sea areas.
Environmentalists say London must stop new exploration to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century.
These conservatives accuse Sonac of playing climate politics in a cost-of-living crisis to win next year’s election.
In opinion surveys, Labour promised not to licence any new North Sea drilling if it wins the election and returns to power after more than 10 years in opposition.
I think restricting (extracting) oil and gas from the North Sea, as Labour recommends, is totally absurd’, Sonac told the Sunday Telegraph on Sunday.
It would “weaken our energy security and strengthen the capacity of dictators like (Russian) President Vladimir Putin,” threatening 200,000 employment and tax revenues of up to £80 billion ($103 billion).
Sonac, who became prime minister in October, claimed he was “supporting the UK’s energy industry” and that stopping exploration may “turn off the lights”.
He underlined fossil fuels “as part of the transition to net zero emissions.”