IISD Submission to the United Kingdom Consultation on Building the North Sea's Energy Future

This brief is IISD's response to the British government's consultation on its vision for the North Sea's clean energy future. In addition to ending the licensing of new oil and gas exploration, IISD recommends the following:

• To maximize the leadership effect, the United Kingdom should join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance as a core member.
• The government should give greater confidence and clarity by removing loopholes for licence extensions, licence transfers, and subsea tiebacks; such loopholes undermine the policy and the British leadership potential.
• The government should consider more fully aligning with the science by ending the granting of development consents for new fields, including where licences already exist. The International Energy Agency has established that this additional step is needed to be consistent with its 1.5°C scenario, and IISD research has found that the same conclusion follows from other 1.5°C scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others.
• The objective of "maximising economic recovery" of oil and gas should be repealed, as it is inherently inconsistent with stabilizing the climate. The North Sea Transition Authority should instead be given a revised objective of facilitating a managed and orderly decline in British oil and gas production consistent with 1.5°C.