The decision comes after a summer marked by record-breaking heat, devastating wildfires and extreme weather around the world. In August, flash flooding and landslides in Nepal, believed to have been triggered by climate-driven glacial collapse, are estimated to have killed at least 1,455 people, with thousands of people still missing.
Campaigners say Jackdaw is built on the same promises the fossil fuel industry has made for years: lower bills, more jobs and greater energy security. Yet the field is expected to meet only around 2% of UK gas demand over its lifetime, while household energy bills will remain exposed to volatile international gas prices.
Jackdaw's lifetime emissions are estimated at 35.8 million tonnes of CO₂e, enough to contribute to more than 8,000 excess heat deaths globally by the end of the century.
The decision now puts the spotlight on Rosebank, the UK's largest undeveloped oil field, whose lifetime emissions would be more than seven times greater than Jackdaw's and which campaigners warn would drill a gaping hole straight through the UK’s climate commitments and credibility.
Katherine May, Head of Oxfam Scotland, said: "The Prime Minister promised to rise to the climate challenge. Instead, he's folded like a deckchair at the first sign of pressure from an industry whose ballooning bank balances depend on keeping us hooked on fossil fuels. The promises are the same as ever: lower bills, more jobs, greater energy security. The problem is these claims have never matched reality.
"After a summer of record heat, devastating wildfires and climate extremes across the world, Ministers can no longer ignore the consequences of their climate decisions.
"Rosebank is now the real reckoning. To approve a project whose emissions dwarf Jackdaw's would be both reprehensible and reckless. The science is clear; the choice should be too.
“And while Scottish Ministers have mastered the art of saying everything except what they actually think about more drilling, it’s obvious that the time for carefully calibrated ambiguity is over. They should be clear that Scotland's future lies in home-grown clean renewable energy and creating good jobs with a long-term future for workers and communities, not by doubling down on an industry in decline."
/ENDS
For more information and interviews, please contact: Rebecca Lozza, Media and Communications Adviser, Oxfam Scotland: rlozza1@oxfam.org.uk / 07917738450
