A Scottish court has declared oil extraction from the British fields Rosebank and Jackdaw illegal at the end of January. This is a welcome development for Greenpeace, which together with the British organization Uplift had asked the court to rule on the two fields. The environmental organization states this in a press release.
The Scottish Court of Session has cancelled the permits to extract oil from the two fields because the British government had not assessed the full climate effects of the projects. The ruling means that oil may not be extracted until the consequences of the so-called scope 3 emissions – the emissions from burning the oil – have been properly assessed.
- This is a fantastically important victory for the climate and the fight for a secure future. It is completely baroque that while entire city districts burn down or wash away as a consequence of climate-induced extreme weather, we give the responsible fossil fuel companies permission to continue the destruction by extracting more oil and gas from the ground, says Sune Scheller, campaign manager at Greenpeace.
Decision should have an impact in Denmark
Greenpeace sees the ruling as an important climate victory and believes that it should also influence the Energy Appeals Board's handling of the Hejre field in Denmark.
In May 2024, Greenpeace submitted a complaint against the Danish Energy Agency's approval of the Hejre field. According to Greenpeace, the environmental impact report for the field does not meet the requirements of an EU directive, as it does not include emissions from burning the extracted oil. The Energy Appeals Board is still processing the appeal case.
- We naturally expect that the Energy Appeals Board will look carefully at the various judgments from abroad, and now that the regulatory framework is the same, I find it difficult to imagine anything other than the Appeals Board finding the Hejre permit illegal. If that happens, it will be obvious to everyone how big the climate consequences of the oil from the field will be, and I of course hope that the Danish government will think better of it and therefore will not approve a new permit, says Sune Scheller.
Facts:
- Rosebank, just under 130 km northwest of Shetland, contains around 500 million barrels of oil, which when burned will emit as much carbon dioxide as the operation of 56 coal-fired power plants for a year.
- When the Jackdaw gas is burned, it will produce more CO2 than the annual emissions of all of Ghana.
The International Energy Agency has stated that if we are to meet the globally agreed climate goals, no new fossil extraction should be approved anywhere in the world after the end of 2021. - The Danish Energy Agency granted Ineos a permit to extract oil from the Hejre field on 26 April 2024.
- Greenpeace subsequently appealed to the Danish Energy Appeals Board against the permit. The appeal is still pending.
amp
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
