Leading climate scientists who helped design the Greater Manchester carbon neutral by 2038 policy have urged Andy Burnham to reject new drilling in the North Sea. In an open letter, Prof Kevin Anderson and scientists from the Tyndall Centre at the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester said reports suggested Burnham’s government may approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gasfields.
The letter said those reports were met with Anderson’s concern “with considerable concern” and warned that “they represent a profound departure from the principles you promoted as Mayor of Greater Manchester”. The scientists also wrote that “The scientific evidence has only strengthened since those earlier commitments were made”.
Rosebank and Jackdaw
Rosebank and Jackdaw were approved under the Conservatives and then put on hold by legal action. The court ruling required a more detailed assessment of the environmental impact, including the effect on the climate of burning any fossil fuels extracted. That leaves any fresh decision tied to the same climate tests that delayed the projects in the first place, rather than to a simple ministerial sign-off.
Labour made a manifesto promise that no new oil and gas licences would be issued. The open letter set that promise against reports that Burnham’s government intended to approve further development of Rosebank and Jackdaw, and it did so while the consultation on Jackdaw remains open until 8 August.
Kevin Anderson and the Paris Agreement
The scientists argued that global emissions must fall by 8% every year if the world is to meet the upper limit of 2C of heating in the Paris climate agreement. They said global temperatures had already risen to the lower limit of the Paris Agreement’s temperature range, 1.5°C, while extreme weather events were becoming more evident across the UK and widespread moorland fires were driving air quality to unsafe levels in Greater Manchester.
Anderson and his colleagues urged Burnham to stick to the commitments he made when he announced the Greater Manchester carbon neutral by 2038 policy. Burnham said in 2024 that Greater Manchester could be front and centre of the green industrial revolution, and the letter asks him to treat that pledge as the standard for any North Sea decision that follows.
The immediate question is whether Burnham will reject further development of Rosebank and Jackdaw before the Jackdaw consultation closes on 8 August. If the government moves ahead, the projects would still have to clear the climate assessment that the court said must account for emissions from burning the extracted fuel.
