Climate activists demand Miliband kills off Rosebank oil and gas project

On 12 March dozens of Cut The Ties To Fossil Fuel activists occupied the road outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in London. They used 4-metre ‘oil rigs’ to stretch out a banner demanding “KILL ROSEBANK SO WE CAN LIVE”.

The street filled with smoke and the sound of drums as a line of activists knelt in front of the DESNZ office. Others poured oil over them from containers labelled Adura and Ithaca. The Oil Slicks performance art group was there too, accompanied by a giant ‘Big Oil’ figure.

Secretary of state Ed Miliband is due to make a decision imminently on whether the controversial Rosebank oil and gas field can go into production. Rosebank is the UK’s largest undeveloped oil field and burning its fossil fuel reserves would emit 254m tonnes of CO2. This makes it incompatible with the UK’s 2050 net zero target.

Ali Fleming, an educator from London who is taking part at the action said:

The decision on Rosebank is a stark choice between reckless profit and survival. We ask Ed Miliband not to lose sight of that, whatever the pressure from lobbyists or other government departments.

Climate change is an existential threat and the science is clear; there can be no new oil and gas developments if we are to avoid the climate tipping into an unrecoverable ‘hothouse earth’ state.

Rosebank won’t lower energy bills

If Rosebank gets the green light, the owners will sell the oil on the international market. Around 80% of all UK oil goes for export. So Rosebank won’t lower our energy bills or add to the UK’s energy security.

However the UK public could carry 91% of the cost of developing Rosebank (£3bn) due to generous tax rebates. NGO Uplift calculates that the gap between the tax breaks and the predicted tax payments from sales profits mean the UK exchequer can expect a net loss of more than £258m over the life of Rosebank. And the recent addition of Shell as co-owner could also potentially cost the exchequer £1.3bn.

Also at the action, Dr Ines Smyth, a retired humanitarian worker from Oxford, said:

Ithaca Energy is owned by the Delek Group, an Israeli fuel conglomerate that is linked to violence and the dispossession of Palestinians as it profits from illegal settlements in the West Bank. Delek literally fuels the ongoing genocide by supplying the Israeli occupation forces as they continue to commit war crimes in Gaza.

Approving Rosebank could mean £200m in profits flowing to Delek. Competition over oil and gas also fuels wider conflicts, so cutting ties to fossil fuel will help bring much needed peace and stability to the world.

Rosebank sits 80 miles north-west off the Shetland Isles. A planned gas pipeline would cut through the Faroe-Shetland Belt Marine Protected Area, threatening its unique ecosystem including endangered species of dolphins, whales and fish. Oil spills, construction drilling and seismic work would all have a negative effect on this fragile ecosystem which is already under pressure from climate change.

Also present, Susan Hampton, a writer from Berkhamsted, said:

We are at the point where we must see emissions peak and begin to fall or the planet will overheat with horrendous consequences.

North Sea oil industry jobs have halved in a decade. Propping up this declining industry is just throwing good money after bad; it would only delay the transition to clean energy which is where the growth in the energy market is anyway.

Killing off Rosebank would be a vital win for the planet, as well as a win for clean jobs. We urge Ed Miliband to do the right thing: cut the ties to fossil fuels and kill Rosebank so we can live.

There were two arrests at the protest. Police charged Jessica Upton from Oxford and Alison Fleming from London with Obstruction of the Highway. This came as they descended from the tripods (‘oil rigs’) they were occupying during the protest.

Featured image via Gareth Morris / Cut the Ties