Opening new oil &gas fields in North Sea would encourage developing countries to exploit more fossil fuels One senior African negotiator reacted furiously to the suggestion: “new oil exploration by a historic emitter is as contradictory as it is regressive” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

ICYMI Climate Scientists write urging UK govt - & opposition parties - to prioritise renewable energy as more cost-effective response to energy crisis than North Sea drilling "around 90% of North Sea oil & gas has already been extracted... more is unlikely to move prices" www.ft.com/content/5059...

NEW ANALYSIS: Record wind and solar generation saved UK from gas imports worth £1bn in March 2026 📈Wind+solar were up 22% year-on-year in March to a record high for the month ⛴️This avoided the need for gas imports worth £1bn at current high prices www.carbonbrief.org/...

Huge respect for Ed Miliband's refusal to back down to pressure over North Sea oil. The fact is drilling for oil in the North Sea will do NOTHING to fix the Iran crisis. The only long term solution to this crisis, and others that will follow, is renewables. Anyone who says otherwise has an agenda

What does it mean when we say the North Sea is a mature basin? This by @frankiemayo.bsky.social illustrates it well. The major spoils have already been tapped, additional discoveries are smaller and more technically complex (expensive). You can't argue with geology.

Is anyone surprised? A voluntary certification scheme to limit gas leaks from US production sites isn't working BP & ExxonMobil are among producers wanting certification to comply with EU rules Yet gas-imaging cameras revealed “huge emissions” at many sites www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🔥 Energy bills are set to rise to £1,929 from July - a £288 increase. 💸 Our dependency on fossil fuels is making us poorer. 🌳 To bring down bills - & protect the planet - we need to get off oil and gas as fast as possible! Me in @scotnational.bsky.social

Am not an energy analyst but why does seem every interview with a U.K. minister this week included a pointed question about why not drilling more in North Sea and almost none about renewables/net zero as an energy security imperative? It’s bizarre, frankly

More drilling in North Sea ‘not the answer’ for UK energy security, as former military leaders join a chorus of voices arguing for a rapid push towards renewables

NEW FACTCHECK: There has been A LOT of debate in the UK on the North Sea Sadly much of it is built on false or misleading claims Me+ @carbonbrief.org colleagues tried to straighten things out www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-ni...

Great news - renewable energy hit a record today in the UK. A surge in wind and solar generation helping to blunt the impact of the price shock of the war in Iran. Gas generation was just 2.4% of the UK's power mix.

⛽ There’s been a lot of chat about the need for more North Sea drilling following the war. But this is a false solution.

@edconway.bsky.social's recent piece in Sky rightly acknowledges that most of the UK’s gas reserves have already been extracted, but he also suggests that "a decent if not overwhelming amount of oil & gas" could still be pumped out, although it's harder & more expensive to extract. A few thoughts:

Our dependance on oil and gas is making all of us poorer - except for oil and gas bosses and shareholders, who will be raking it in. To solve this problem we have to move to renewables asap. Me on TalkTv

The idea the North Sea is some great goldmine waiting to be tapped is entirely at odds with reality.

Helpfully Tim Leunig accepts as a premise that more North Sea drilling won’t make oil nor gas more affordable in the UK. But his arguments about tax and the strategic benefit of allowing more North Sea licensing are flawed in key ways (as well as in ways that James has pointed out). Long 🧵 below:

Our politicians need to be where the conversations are happening… but is Ed Miliband taking it too far? To hear more from Deputy Director of Uplift @robertnpalmer.bsky.social, catch up with the pod now. We discuss Rachel Reeves' potential cuts to the Warm Homes Plan. #ASMR #Politics #UK

Huge news from the UK today: after UN climate talks in which there was a massive fight over language on fossil fuels, the UK government today announced that it will in fact be keeping many millions of barrels of oil & gas in the ground. Deeds rather than just words for a change! 🧵

The Scottish Affairs Committee's report on North Sea policy is absolutely right to conclude that, in recent years, there has been a disastrous failure to plan for job losses at Grangemouth and in North Sea oil & gas. But its findings are unfortunately already out of date. More detail in the 🧵:

Read this sorry story about how an academic was axed from conference panels because he was deemed too interesting. He was told no one on the panel was expected to air difficult opinions in front of MPs that could damage the oil and gas sector www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Scotland has everything it needs to win big from the energy transition: a proud industrial heritage, skilled energy workforce & world class renewable resources. As the 2026 elections approach, Uplift has developed our proposals for making energy work for Scotland: 🧵 www.upliftuk.org/post/make-en...

A good news story! I spoke to The Standard Tech Science Daily podcast on how renewables have now surpassed coal for electricity generation this year

For ~20yrs the Climate Change Act has powered clean growth & climate action Proud to co-ordinate 124 MPs & Peers to urge the Conservatives, don’t scrap it Turning climate leadership into a political football puts our economy, security & children’s future at risk #ClimateAction

While the Tory party's energy & climate policy grows increasingly detached from reality, worth reflecting on a remarkable, under-reported event at Labour conference: the launch of Climate Jobs UK, a campaign by GMB, Prospect & other TUs focused on the creation of good jobs in the energy transition 🧵

Nick Robinson on Today this AM was completely wrong to suggest that pumping more oil & gas from the North Sea would lower bills, something even former Tory Energy Secretaries have accepted. We’ve burned most of the gas and export the vast majority of the oil—and oil is basically what’s left…

"The reality is that the small print in the industry's own reports show that there is vanishingly small amounts of gas thats left to be extracted from the North Sea." Tessa Khan, Executive Director & Founder at Uplift, @tessakhan.bsky.social. On LBC with Clare Foges @lbc.co.uk.

Some highly questionable industry assertions about ‘tiebacks’ and new oil & gas exploration licensing covered by the Sunday Times this morning, incl. the volume of potential production & the impact on jobs & supply chains. Let's take a closer look: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

The FT’s John Gapper has offered his advice on North Sea oil and gas drilling this morning. Let’s start with what we agree on: The UK government needs a proper plan for the future of the North Sea. This is unarguable. 🧵

Somewhat sensationalist headline here obscures some really interesting research - which tallies with other available tracking data - on shifting attitudes to climate in the UK. Below are a few quick thoughts on how to understand this, in my view 👇 t.co/gDqlQgQBHn

How much oil and gas is REALLY left in the North Sea? 🤔 According to a new report by oil and gas lobby group @oeuk.bsky.social, loads!!!! *As long as they get subsidies and deregulation* Is this true? And if so, would it lower bills? Let's investigate...

This is such a bizarre pitch

This would be laughable if it wasn't so serious: yet again, the Tories are claiming that we can get "all our oil and gas" from the North Sea and that we should be doing even more to support the industry to extract. There are several reasons why we should treat this with maximum scepticism:

Trump’s Scotland visit wasn’t just about golf. His call to "Get rid of the windmills and bring back the oil" is an attempt to meddle in our energy transition. We have abundant wind resources which can provide us with energy security, lower bills, and good jobs. @jeremyvine.bsky.social

Remarkable how often this is missed in political debates on energy. Farage and Badenoch are allowed to repeatedly imply drilling more can fix everything, but it is highly probable there is not much gas left to drill. www.businessgreen.com/news/4516717...

🚨For 60 years, the North Sea powered the UK, but the gas is running out - fast Even if every new gas field is approved, UK production won’t meet our heating needs by 2027, and by 2050 94% of our gas will have to be imported. That’s not a policy choice, it’s geological reality [1/3]

BREAKING 🚨: We've just dropped a massive banner off Westminster Bridge to demand the UK Government #StopRosebank It's time for Keir Starmer make the right choice 👀

JUST RAISE TAX After last night’s U-turn, Rachel Reeves cannot tweak her way out of this crisis. The system must be torn down.

🚨BREAKING Multiple British Overseas Territories just missed their deadline to expose the £billions being stashed away in secret offshore accounts by super rich tax dodgers, corporates, and criminals. This is the third such deadline they’ve missed. 1/4 www.theguardian.com/business/202...

"This is not just a usual British warm summer and it's being driven by climate change." 💯 @robertnpalmer.bsky.social on @lbcnews.bsky.social

🚨 REMINDER: This is not normal. People across the world are sweltering under record temperatures, and new oil and gas will only crank up the heat. Yet Equinor and Ithaca want to develop the climate-wrecking Rosebank oil field. We won't let them.

1/ The Rosebank oil field is a very bad deal for the UK. Generous tax breaks mean the UK public would shoulder over 80% of the costs – and the vast majority of risk – from developing this massive oil field. How much we lose out depends on what oil prices might be in the future. 🧵

Another day, another story from the oil & gas industry that's all spin. The latest claim is there's an extra 3.5-ish bn barrels of O&G there for the taking in the North Sea, which would generate huge riches for the UK. Except the underlying analysis confirms this is "beyond realistic assumptions" /1

Reform UK is proposing a "Britannia card" that would let wealthy foreigners pay a £250k fee to move to the UK, and live here exempt from all tax on their foreign assets What they don't say: it would cost the UK £34bn Report here, and thread below: buff.ly/gpe2Dpf

The UK gov has just published new guidance for environmental impact assessments for oil & gas projects. Despite reports/industry spin, it includes a genuinely robust, credible approach to assessing the emissions caused by burning oil & gas. Let's take a look! 🧵 www.heraldscotland.com/news/2525207...

Treasury 'poised to miss out on £250m in tax receipts from Rosebank oil development'

The UK heatwave is a directly linked to climate change. We're running out of time to act if we want a liveable climate. While some like the heat (I'm a sweaty mess today!) the heatwave is bad news for all of us - hurting people's health, increasing the risk of drought and harming farmers.

Today’s £13.2bn Warm Homes Plan is a huge step forward and other progress has been made:
 [1/4]

The UK govt softened tax reforms on the superrich because of a widely reported “exodus” of millionaires fleeing the UK. Our new study w/ @patmillsuk.bsky.social & @taxjusticeuk.bsky.social shows that the "exodus" was a complete fiction. #BogusExodus #TaxTheSuperRich taxjustice.net/press/millio...

Your latest reminder that the oil & gas industry is not interested in reducing emissions & will lobby govt/ regulators until it get its way. Great reporting from the @scotsman.com on how BP successfully weakened the UK oil & gas regulator's plan to reduce emissions: www.scotsman.com/news/scottis...