UK has increased oil reserves since declaring a climate emergency

The UK has increased oil reserves since declaring a climate emergency, according to a new report published by Friends of the Earth Scotland and Oil Change International. 

The report reveals that the UK’s developed oil and gas reserves have increased by 800 million barrels since 2019. 

There are currently 6.5 billion barrels of oil in UK developed fields, with another 13.5 billion in fields earmarked for future development. 

This will create emissions equivalent to running Scotland’s largest coal power station for over 35 years. 

Coming just weeks before COP26 in Glasgow, the report calls on the UK and Scottish Governments to cease all new oil and gas field developments, to end financial support for the fossil fuel industry and to redirect that investment and policy support to the just transition. 

The report makes clear that there can be no new oil and gas developments in UK waters if we are to uphold our commitment to the Paris Agreement. 

This means the UK and Scottish governments must reject all new developments, including the controversial Cambo oil field off Shetland which contains 800 million barrels of oil and gas. 

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s climate and energy campaigner Caroline Rance said: ‘Oil and gas are the accelerants of the climate fire engulfing the world, yet both the UK and Scottish Governments are still committed to extracting every last drop of fossil fuels from the North Sea.

‘Writing the rules for the benefit of fossil fuel companies and encouraging major polluters to keep on drilling for decades to come cannot possibly be reconciled with the action that is needed to cut climate pollution.”

‘This toxic combination of political and financial support means the UK now has 6.5 billion barrels of oil and gas in fields that are already open and being drilled, which is more than enough to see us through the transition to clean renewable energy.

‘Every time the UK opens a new oil field we get further away from a well-planned just transition. Oil and gas production must be phased out in a managed way over the next decade, with investment and support redirected to scaling up renewables across the country and ensuring a just transition so that every worker can retrain and move into a good green job.’