UK, activists sue Rosebank oil field.The government gives up on defending him

The legal action against the Rosebank oil field, brought by citizens and environmental NGOs, has reached a turning point.

• The previous British government approved the Rosebank oil field in the North Atlantic.
• Environmental organizations have launched legal action, believing it breaches the UK's climate plan.
• The new Labor executive has given up on defence.Activists are now forcefully calling for the project to be stopped permanently.

The new British government, who took office during the summer, decides to send a signal of a strong break with the previous 14 years of conservative leadership.By giving up defending the enormous Rosebank oil field, in the North Atlantic, fromlegal action which was brought by the #StopRosebank campaign with the support of almost 18 thousand citizens.

What is the Rosebank oil field

Just over a year has passed since, in September 2023, theInternational Energy Agency (IEA) posted the update of his roadmap to net zero, the elimination of net greenhouse gas emissions.Making it clear that, to contain global warming within the threshold of 1.5 degrees, by 2050 renewable sources will have to provide 90 percent of energy.

With a curious timing, the following day the British government (then led by Rishi Sunak) approved one of the projects related to fossil fuels most impressive in recent years.Is called Rosebank and is managed by the Norwegian company Equinor.It is located 80 miles north of the coast of the Shetland Islands, in the North Atlantic.It is the largest unexploited British oil and gas field:in fact it guards almost 500 million barrels, 90 percent oil.Oil that will be exported for refining and only partly resold in the UK at a market price.

Which means, environmental groups point out, which citizens will pay bills substantially unchanged but, on the other hand, with their taxes they will also cover the generous tax breaks granted to new investments in fossil fuels.The bill to pay in terms of costs is also very heavy greenhouse gas emissions:burning the gas and oil extracted at Rosebank would exceed 200 million tonnes of CO2, more than the annual emissions of Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique and 25 other low-income countries combined. The roadmap sets the start of production in 2026.

The #StopRosebank campaign and the legal action

In the UK, i environmental groups have already come up against similar fossil projects.And, in some cases, they won.It happened in 2021, when Shell has decided to abandon the controversial project Change in the North Sea.It is precisely from this experience that the #StopRosebank campaign, which includes citizens and non-governmental organizations spread across the British territory.“We are united by trust in climate justice, which requires a just transition and for countries like the UK to properly play their part in tackling the climate crisis, recognizing the climate debt that rich states owe the rest of the world after centuries of colonization and emissions,” we read on the campaign website.

The activism also ended up in court.The two organizations Uplift and Greenpeace UK, in fact, have launched two separate ones legal actions against the Rosebank field.Strengthened by a similar ruling from the Supreme Court, in fact, they maintain that the emissions linked to the entire life cycle of the project must be counted.And that, if the gas and oil combustion phase is also included, the Rosebank field is not compatible with the climate plan of the United Kingdom.Furthermore, they consider the evaluation of theimpact on the marine ecosystem that was conducted.

With a very strong decision, the Labor government announced that will not defend in court the decision, taken by his predecessor, to give the green light to the Rosebank field.To quote the words of the environmental movements, "he made the right decision not to waste time and money trying to defend the indefensible".The last word has not yet been written on the case, because everything will depend on the oil company Equinor and from North Sea Transition Authority (Nsta), the authority that endorsed the authorization.If they also decide to give up their defense, the legal action will no longer make sense to exist.If they remain firm in their position, vice versa, the case will move forward.Meanwhile, NGOs are asking the government to take an even more decisive step forward, stopping the project once and for all.