Contribution
Thank you for your expert chairing and timekeeping in this debate, Mr Twigg. I thank most Members for returning to hear the closing speeches, I thank the hon. Member for Bristol Central (Carla Denyer) for securing the debate, and I thank all right hon. and hon. Members for their participation.
I echo the comments of the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, the hon. Member for Gordon and Buchan (Harriet Cross), about Sir Jim Milne. He was a titan of industry in Aberdeen and was the founder of the Balmoral Group, which is a good example of what we are talking about today: the group was largely set up in oil and gas, but is increasingly doing work in renewables. My thoughts are with his family.
I want to be clear at the outset about one thing, which may disappoint many Members present. Rosebank is subject to an ongoing regulatory process. In due course, the Secretary of State for Energy has to decide whether or not to agree the grant of that consent. If she decides to do so, the North Sea Transition Authority then has to make the final decision. The environmental effect of the project will be considered and weighed alongside other relevant considerations in reaching a decision, including the potential advantages of the project proceeding. I stress that this Government will not make decisions for this country that are not compatible with our climate obligations, but I cannot and will not undermine the regulatory process that is currently under way by discussing the merits or demerits of the Rosebank project today.
However, I want to pick up some of the more general issues that have been raised in the debate. Of course, consideration of the Rosebank decision follows the decision taken by the Energy Secretary to approve the Jackdaw gasfield just a few weeks ago. The Jackdaw decision will support the country’s energy security, protecting hundreds of jobs and adding an estimated £2.9 billion to the UK economy; the decision document outlines more details on that. The decision was fully in line with our climate commitments, and we expect that in the coming days gas will start to flow from the field to meet demand right across Britain.
I want to set out once again the Government’s wider energy, North sea and climate policy. I will begin where the hon. Member for Bristol Central began: on climate. She is right to say that it is imperative that we tackle the climate crisis. The heatwaves, droughts and extreme weather events that are becoming all too frequent are a reminder to people right across this country that climate change is not some future, theoretical threat, but a very present reality that we are living through.
This Government are absolutely committed to tackling the climate crisis, supporting bill payers and bolstering our energy security by moving to the clean, home-grown energy system that we need and that we control. First, the recent heatwaves and extreme weather events that we have seen demonstrate why this is of critical importance, and that we must pick up the pace in the transition to clean energy. Secondly, recent rises to the energy price cap have largely been caused by the war in Iran, showing that we have to move off the ruinous reliance on global fossil fuel markets that we can never control.
The hon. Member and others rightly pointed out that new drilling in the North sea will not take a penny off bills, and we should be honest about that. Producing the energy that we need at home is vital to moving away from fossil fuel dependence, and the transition to clean energy remains a central priority for this Government. However, we have always been clear that the UK will still require oil and gas as part of our energy mix for decades to come, even on our path to net zero.
It is a basic truth, which we must be honest about, that until we increase our electrification and move away from a reliance on fossil fuels, we will still require them to heat homes, power the country and power industry, but it is right that we take a pragmatic approach. In short, we are not a turn-off-the-taps Government, as our critics accuse us of being, but nor can we justifiably be a drill-every-last-drop Government. We have to manage the transition and build for our energy needs of the future as quickly as possible, and that is baked into the legally binding climate commitments that we have in order to reach net zero by 2050.
Just last week, we introduced the Energy Independence Bill to Parliament, making good on our commitment to introduce legislation to end new exploration licences. We will be the first major G7 producer country to take that step, making sure that we signal a commitment to the global 1.5°C climate goal and demonstrating global climate leadership at a hugely important moment for the world. Furthermore, North sea oil and gas production is already in natural decline. Production in 2025 was 75% lower than in peak years. Further licensing will not reverse that natural decline or change the UK’s status as a net importer of oil and gas. It is a basic fact that, while oil and gas will continue to play an important role in our energy system for decades to come, that has to be alongside our move, as quickly as possible, to the deployment of renewable, new nuclear and other low-carbon technologies.