The United Kingdom needs to implement “stringent tests” before allowing further oil and gas development in order not to further set back the country’s slow decarbonization rate, a government-sponsored committee said Thursday.
The annual independent report of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) highlighted that positive policy actions have hit the road but are lacking the pace to meet emissions reduction targets, while the UK is also facing competition from the European Union and the USA that could deprive it of green investments.
The assessment noted the deadline for the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution—a commitment by governments under the 2015 Paris Agreement—is only seven years away. The UK has vowed to curb economy emissions by at least 68 percent relative to 1990 levels come 2030. Progress so far means the nation needs to almost quadruple its decarbonization rate to 4.7 percent outside the power generation sector, the CCC said.
The country’s greenhouse gas emissions total of 450 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last year is 46 percent below 1990 levels, up 0.8 percent from 2021 but down nine percent from 2019 or pre-pandemic levels, the report said. The progress in reduction however was due to “exceptional circumstances” such as pandemic-dented energy consumption and the temperature- and inflation-induced weakening in demand for household energy.
“The pace of emissions reduction has been slow in recent years in all sectors apart from electricity supply”, whose decarbonization progress has been driven by a shift away from coal, the assessment said.
In 2022 fuel supply emissions rose six percent, the second-highest increase among the sectors after aviation, whose emissions soared 95 percent on a mobility rebound from the coronavirus crisis, according to the report.
The government’s energy security strategy updated April 2022 provides for further oil and gas production in the North Sea to ease the UK’s reliance on imports and ultimately reduce prices for consumers. The North Sea Transition Authority opened a new licensing round October.
The CCC has argued further fossil fuel development in the North Sea is a misguided approach to energy security. “Any increases in UK extraction of oil and gas would have, at most, a marginal effect on the prices faced by UK consumers in future”, it wrote in a letter to the energy secretary February 24, 2022.
The committee reiterated that stance in the report, saying, “The best way to reduce the UK’s exposure to volatile markets is instead to cut fossil fuel consumption through measures such as rapidly shifting to renewables, improving energy efficiency and electrifying end uses (such as heating, industry and transport)”.
The assessment recommended that the authorities “strengthen and clarify the tests in place for allowing any further exploration and extraction of oil and gas”.
“Stringent tests, in line with the advice in our 2022 oil and gas letter, should be applied at each stage of the licensing and consenting process”, the CCC said. “These tests should be underpinned by a presumption against exploration and tighter limits on production, be assessed against more ambitious decarbonization targets (well beyond the 50% target set out in the North Sea Transition Deal), and make use of the best available technology to minimize emissions associated with production.”
The committee called on the North Sea regulator to allow “no direct emissions from operational energy use by 2027”.
“If this is to be deliverable, swift and coordinated action will be required to address barriers, including around grid connections and consenting pathways”, the report stated.
While the CCC recommended energy security efforts focus on renewable energy instead, it noted potential investment challenges from competition posed by the EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan and the USA’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“It is critical that the UK re-establishes its climate leadership with a clearer strategy to develop Net Zero industries and technologies in the UK and capture the economic benefits of Net Zero, with actions that create demand-pull for the critical technologies that will shape the UK’s progress over the next decade”, it said.
