Squandering investment capital on fossil fuels makes no sense at all - Yorkshire Post Letters

Bill Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post Opinion, September 29, 2023) in his rant against anything environmental, certainly makes clear his view about why we should only be paying lip service to policies to reduce carbon emissions.

He ridicules the suggestion that people are going to die and claims that “most people just shrug their shoulders” at such a suggestion. Perhaps Mr Carmichael should start by reading the very thoughtful letter from Dave Roberts published in the YP on the same day as his article.

Mr Roberts points out that over 60,000 people (3,300 in the UK alone) died as a result of the excessive summer temperatures in 2022. Perhaps Mr Carmichael should ask the family, friends and loved ones of those that died if they are shrugging their shoulders in their grief.

And, of course, that is not counting the tens of thousands of people who have perished in other parts of the world due to climate change consequences, including unprecedented floods and wildfires. Mr Carmichael’s lack of concern for the feelings of the bereaved is crass in the extreme.

It is difficult to comment on every aspect of Mr Carmichael’s diatribe in a brief letter but the gist of his rant was about the Government’s decision to give the go-ahead for the massive Rosebank oil field development.

He comments that “the Government is still committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050”. That date (which many say is too late in any case) was determined alongside policies to give effect to this commitment, by previous Conservative Governments.

The current Government is now dismantling the policies of their predecessors yet still say that they are committed to 2050. Perhaps they just don’t care because they think they are not going to be around in a year’s time and therefore it will be someone else’s problem.

The tragedy is, that by digging ever more carbon out of the earth, we are losing a valuable opportunity to solve many of the issues that we may face in the future. I agree with Mr Carmichael when he says “relying on imported energy supplies is incredibly risky”.

But, relying on fossil fuels exacerbates that risk. We are no longer a net exporter of oil nor will we ever be again. Reliance on fossil fuels is leaving us reliant on imported energy.

Whilst progress has been made on the development of renewable energy, the investment made in these new technologies is not sufficient compared to the investment in fossil fuel development and extraction.

Rosebank alone will require investment of £7.3bn over the lifetime of the field. This makes no economic sense, let alone environmental sense. Analysis by Bloomberg estimates that funding for low-carbon energy sources must rise to £4 for every £1 allocated to fossil fuels if we are to meet the 2050 net zero target.

Currently, £1 is invested in fossil fuel production for every 90p in renewables. Committing ever more capital investment in fossil fuel production merely serves to starve the capital available for alternative energy production.

As a nation, we have not been self-sufficient in energy for the last 20 years. Squandering investment capital in digging more carbon out of the ground makes no sense at all.

A sensible planned strategy for low-carbon energy investment can make us self-sufficient again. But, sense seems to be at a bit of a premium at the moment.