Yesterday, the UK government released its new Energy Security Strategy “to make cleaner, more affordable energy in the UK, for the UK”.
But Johnson’s strategy has failed on all these counts. It won’t lower bills, it won’t secure energy independence, and it won’t protect the climate.
Most alarmingly, the strategy announced plans for a new round of oil and gas licensing this autumn and more moves to encourage new oil and gas drilling. This is completely unforgivable.
It is more crucial now than ever before that the UK government takes seriously the need to both deliver energy affordability for the public and safeguard the future of all life on Earth.
Just this week, the IPCC released its latest report detailing the actions that need to be urgently taken to make the most of our now slim chance to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. We must phase out fossil fuels much, much quicker; we absolutely must not explore for new oil and gas. Production on many of these fields would not even begin for decades!
Continued oil and gas exploration and extraction is the complete opposite of what we need: we simply can’t afford it, and it’s blowing our shot at a liveable future!
On top of making way for new oil and gas, what the UK offered today does too little to support renewables, completely ignores the need to insulate our homes, and makes a reckless gamble on costly, risky and unnecessary nuclear energy.
This is not good enough. We already have the solutions we need to tackle the climate crisis and deliver energy security, the UK government is just not willing to implement them.
We need:
1. A rapid phase out of oil and gas
A rapid, just transition to renewables is the best shot we have at safeguarding our future, and renewables are already cheaper than fossil fuels! We already have over 600 proposed wind and solar projects in the UK. Why are they not being pushed forward at an emergency pace?
2. A UK-wide energy efficiency programme
Millions more are being forced into fuel poverty now and insulation is something that can be delivered now to mitigate this disaster. The government is completely ignoring this crucial short-term solution to reduce our energy usage which would in turn mean less energy costs and less emissions almost immediately.
3. A windfall tax
Whilst the UK public is suffering so much financially, Shell and BP are on track to make £40 billion in profit this year. It is just common sense that these companies that are literally taking our futures away from us should not be allowed to take home billions in profits whilst millions cannot afford their bills. We need the introduction of a windfall tax on these profits. We need that money to be redistributed to those who are struggling the most to stay afloat financially and to real solutions to the climate and energy crisis.
We need to take action now to force the UK Government to take the necessary actions to safeguard life on earth and lift people out of fuel poverty. According to the IPCC report, “our window for action is closing”. Now is the only time we have left, and the need for action applies to all of us: we cannot count on the UK Government coming to save us, so we need to fight for our own lives.
Take action with us:
Please join Stop Cambo’s next welcome call on the 13th of April to join the fight to end oil and gas extraction for good.
Some more actions you can take now:
SHARE the link to this petition: https://www.change.org/stop-all-fields
WATCH this video to learn more about the Energy Security Strategy and SHARE on instagram, twitter and facebook.