UK snubs new alliance to end all oil and gas production

But the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) failed to get the support of the world’s biggest oil producers – Saudi Arabia, US, Russia, Canada – or Europe’s largest producers, the UK and Norway.

The core members of the alliance are Wales, Ireland, Denmark, Costa Rica, France, Sweden, Greenland and Quebec. Portugal, California and New Zealand are associate members and Italy is supporting it as a “friend”.

It is “in close dialogue” with Scotland over membership.

Danish climate minister Dan Jorgensen said he hoped the alliance would mark “the beginning of the end of oil and gas”, and invited other countries to commit to halting the extraction of fossil fuels.

Bob Ward, from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, said: “This is a welcome and vital initiative to accelerate an end to the age of fossil fuels.

Disappointing “The International Energy Agency made clear earlier this year that limiting warming to 1.5C and reaching net zero emissions by 2050 means no new development of oil, coal and gas. Every country that has now set a 2050 net zero target, including the UK and the United States, should be joining this alliance.”

The UK and Scottish governments have come under fire over the potential development of the Cambo oil and gas field in the North Sea, which is thought to contain up to 800 million barrels of oil.

Lyndsay Walsh, Oxfam’s climate policy adviser, said: “It is disappointing the UK government has not signed up to this welcome initiative.

“The UK may have led the way on committing to net zero emissions, but it must address the epic contradiction of continuing to grant oil and gas licences in the North Sea.”

The Government said no other significant oil and gas producing nation had gone as far as the UK in supporting the sector’s gradual transition to a low-carbon future.

It said: “We will continue to work with international partners on the transition from fossil fuels towards clean energy so we can create jobs, build new industries and drive economic growth.”

source: express.co.uk