Former Archbishop of Canterbury among 250 signatories of open letter calling on prime minister to ‘pull the plug’ on Rosebank
More than 250 organisations and people – including a former Archbishop of Canterbury – have signed a letter urging the prime minister to “pull the plug” on the controversial Rosebank oilfield.
The open letter calling on Kier Starmer to stop the west of Shetland development has been signed by faith leaders, academics and farmers.
The Labour government has already said it would not be contesting the legal action taken against the previous Tory administration’s decision to approve the development.
Last week it was confirmed the legal case would be heard in the Court of Session, after Equinor, the majority stakeholder in the project said it would contest the case against campaign groups Uplift and Greenpeace.
The campaigners have successfully argued that the decision to approve Rosebank was unlawful because it failed to consider the “downstream emissions” of burning the fossil fuels extracted during the course of its lifetime.
Should the campaigners succeed in their next legal case and Equinor resubmits its application to the government for approval, the letter asks that Mr Starmer commit to rejecting Rosebank.
It also asks Mr Starmer to support an end to new oil and gas projects, which it says is “urgently required to prevent further catastrophic climate breakdown”.
The letter, which has been signed by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan William continues by asking the prime minister to “back a plan for a properly funded just transition” including how jobs will be created.
And it asks that the UK government “focus on the real solution to tackle Britain’s broken energy system”.Lead campaigner at Stop Rosebank, Lauren MacDonald said:
“The Rosebank project is a disaster for our climate and a bad deal for the public.”It won’t do anything to lower fuel bills or increase our energy security as most of it will be exported. It will only make even more profits for obscenely rich oil and gas companies.
“The effects of climate change are now clear to us all – the intense rainfall and flooding we’ve recently had here and in Europe will only be made worse and become more frequent as long as we keep burning oil and gas .
“People who are being impacted up and down the country are asking why on earth we’re continuing to develop massive new oil projects like Rosebank, when we know it will only put us in more danger.
“The government has shown that it has common sense by agreeing that the original decision to approve Rosebank was unlawful.””
But if we win in court, the decision may well end up right back on the government’s desk.
“Government should take heed of the concerns of farmers, doctors, faith leaders and people across the UK and make the right choice to stop this field for good.”
Equinor claims Rosebank will help contribute to the UK’s energy security while creating jobs,
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