Graham made this statement as he informed MPs that he had awarded more than 100 licences for north sea drilling – and claimed that this was a green policy. He also claimed that this fossil fuel extraction will help the UK reach net zero by 2050.
His argument goes, that as the UK oil and gas production is on a decline, with a trajectory that is faster than required by the IEA (international energy agesncy), opening up new fields was green because they would have a lower carbon impact than importing oil and gas from abroad in a less sustainable way presumably he missed the fact that this foreign oil and gas will still be mined, so actually there will be a significant net increase in emissions.
As if it needs saying, we produce 45% of our gas in the country; 38% of our gas comes from Norway, a country with the highest standards in the world for gas extraction and decades ago banned flaring (burning gas off, producing methane). To the contrary, north sea oil still uses flaring.
