Storm Éowyn shows why we need to stop burning oil and gas

This is why we brought our legal challenge against the Rosebank oil field. Burning oil and gas is driving the extreme weather we are seeing here and worldwide, which will only worsen if we continue to expand drilling.

Burning the oil from this one field off Shetland will create more climate pollution than 700 million of the world’s poorest people do in a year. These vast emissions were ignored by the previous UK Government when it approved Rosebank in 2023. The judge agreed with us that this was unlawful.

Advocates for more oil and gas are keen to pit this serious climate harm against the supposed benefits of new drilling – but do they stack up?

Generous tax breaks

In Rosebank’s case, most of its oil will be exported and sold on the open market. It won’t lower our bills or increase our energy security.

What it will do is enrich the ludicrously profitable company that owns Rosebank, the Norwegian oil giant Equinor, which made over £90 billion in profits in just two years at the height of the energy crisis while millions of people struggled to stay warm. Despite this, UK taxpayers will pick up most of the cost of developing Rosebank, thanks to generous tax breaks.

As for jobs, unions have angrily noted that Rosebank isn’t creating construction or design jobs here despite local expertise, with contracts “siphoned off overseas”. Rosebank’s drilling ship is currently being built in Dubai.

Long-term energy security

Developing a new field like Rosebank will not solve the challenges facing the UK’s oil and gas workers, which have seen jobs supported by the industry more than halve in the past decade as the basin declines.

Now is the time to demand that governments focus on Scotland’s extraordinary wind resources, which could, with the right policies to support domestic manufacturing, provide long-term security.

We should not be content to sit back and let oil companies squeeze the last profitable drops of oil from Scotland’s waters for their own gain. A government that backs new drilling is one that puts their interests ahead of the rest of us.

Tessa Khan is executive director at campaigning and research group Uplift