UK is among a group of five richer nations which have together issued two-thirds of oil and gas licenses since 2020, according to the IISD
The research notes a small group of rich nations – the US, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK alone – have issued two-thirds of the total number of oil and gas licenses since 2020. Fellow G20 nations China, Mexico and Russia, meanwhile, are singled out as the countries gearing up to license the biggest volumes of oil and gas in the second half of 2024. It comes despite nations pledging to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems” at the COP28 UN Climate Summit in Dubai last year, in a bid to try and cap global warming at safer levels. The promise came after various analyses showed that new oil and gas exploration is incompatible with efforts to cap global temperatures at 1.5C, the lower warming threshold agreed by countries in the Paris Agreement.
Olivier Bois Von Kursk, policy advisor at IISD, said richer nations had a responsibility to lead on the transition away from fossil fuels. “Ending oil and gas licensing is a logical next step in the transition to clean energy,” he said. “Governments need to put the COP28 Climate Summit agreement into practice—particularly those with the wealth to drive investment into more sustainable sectors.”
Scientists have repeatedly warned that warming of more than 1.5C risks unleashing severe climate change impacts, including intense heatwaves, droughts, heavy rains and rising sea levels, which could exacerbate hunger, conflict, nature loss, and make some small island nations and coastal areas uninhabitable. The UK’s new Labour government has therefore pledged to put an end to all new oil and gas exploration in order to help meet climate goals as well as help reduce reliance on risky, expensive fossil fuels that have driven up energy bills in recent years. However it has also said it would respect existing licenses handed out by previous administration, including that for the controversial Rosebank oil field in the North Sea.
Over the past 12 months, the UK issued 80 licenses, representing 46.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to IISD’s analysis. That puts it tenth in the world in a ranking of countries by emissions embodied in oil and gas licenses awarded over the last 12 months, after Mozambique, Russia, Egypt, Norway, Brazil and the US, among others, it notes. IISD’s research notes that if all licensed fields around the world were to be fully exploited, the world would extract more than twice as much oil and gas in 2050 than would be compatible with a 1.5C pathway. It also warned that oil and gas resources discovered in 2024 alone could unleash 12 billion tonnes of CO2, if fully exploited.
Elsewhere, the IISD warned that companies spent $26.2bn exploring for oil and gas over the last 12 months, with Equinor, Shell and BP leading the pack. In order to halt expansion of oil and gas exploration, the research calls for a ban on new fossil fuel projects worldwide, arguing that “proponents of ambitious climate action should focus on stopping new fossil fuel projects, encompassing exploration for and development of new fossil fuel extraction sites, and permitting and construction of new, large-scale fossil fuel–consuming infrastructure”.
Source: businessgreen.com