Source: The Conversation – UK
Though the announcement that the UK government will move ahead with the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea was anticipated, it has generated a wave of criticism from around the world. This will have significant implications for the UK’s international standing on climate change.
The UK’s debate over new drilling has focused on job creation, energy security, emissions and the UK’s climate commitments, and the claim that the gas field was already licensed by the previous government.
Researchers and advocacy groups have poured cold water on these justifications, questioning the scale of the economic benefits of a project that will meet just 2% of UK gas demand for ten years – and that’s if none is exported.
The original consent for Jackdaw was quashed in 2025 for failing to account for its total emissions footprint – including those generated when the gas is actually burned. The field is owned by Adura, a joint venture between Shell and Norwegian energy giant Equinor. The developers had to submit a fresh environmental assessment, and the government had to decide again whether to approve the project in light of the full emissions assessment. That means this is not an inherited decision: the government must own it outright.
Moving in the wrong direction
As more countries commit to phasing out fossil fuels and publish plans to do so, the UK government has moved in the opposite direction. By approving this project, the UK is showing that similar projects around the world are permissible, leaving its government with no grounds to object to fossil fuel projects elsewhere.
At the UN’s Cop30 climate summit in Brazil last year, the then energy secretary Ed Miliband said he was “fighting” for an outcome that contained a roadmap for moving away from fossil fuels. The UK joined over 80 countries in calling for the roadmap, acting in solidarity with countries already suffering the impacts of climate breakdown. Now the government is giving new drilling the go ahead. “That double standard”, said Mohamed Adow from the thinktank Power Shift Africa in response to the Jackdaw news, “will not go unnoticed”.
This blow to the UK’s credibility on climate was not inevitable. Despite the incredibly challenging backdrop of energy price shocks and supply bottlenecks, many governments are leaving fossil fuels in the ground. Our research shows that these policies range from bans and moratoriums on specific types of extraction or in certain areas, to fossil fuel subsidy reforms and restrictions on export credit. Many governments have begun working together on these policies as part of “climate clubs”, sharing best practice and pooling leverage.
Indeed the UK has pioneered many of these initiatives. It played a leading role in founding the Powering Past Coal Alliance and the Clean Energy Transition Partnership, which grew out of a UK policy. It was the first G7 nation to enshrine net zero into law and has made climate diplomacy a perennial feature of foreign policy across both Conservative and Labour governments.
What’s more, North Sea production is in long-term decline, with assets approaching retirement and employment declining for years. Meanwhile, renewable energy is making an increasing contribution to growth. If the UK can’t hold the line on new fossil fuel production and manage the phase-down of existing operations, what hope do less wealthy, less economically diversified countries have?
A global shift away from fossil fuels
A more fitting question is perhaps where true leadership is coming from. In 2027, governments will gather for the Second Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels – a process launched this year in Santa Marta, Colombia, and attended by countries representing one-third of global fossil fuel consumption and one-fifth of global production. Co-hosted by the governments of Ireland and Tuvalu, a low-lying island nation whose very existence is threatened by climate change, the conference offers a forum to develop coordinated measures to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, beyond the constraints of the annual UN climate summits where everyone gets a veto. In a world where multilateral cooperation is increasingly difficult, these governments are actively building a new geopolitics.
They are also facing down the reality of falling global demand for fossil fuels, with high-cost projects in declining basins like the North Sea most at risk when demand falls. The International Energy Agency expects peak demand for fossil fuels within four years. As sales of solar panels and electric vehicles accelerate at a dizzying pace in the wake of yet another global energy crisis, peak demand may come sooner than expected.
The legal ground has shifted too. The International Court of Justice produced an Advisory Opinion clarifying that failing to protect the climate through fossil fuel exploration and production may constitute an internationally wrongful act. Though the UK government’s own decision document rejects this, the Jackdaw decision is likely to trigger legal challenges.
The UK government now faces two challenges in quick succession. A decision on Rosebank, the UK’s largest untapped oil field, is still pending. And in early November, Andy Burnham and the UK delegation will arrive at the next UN climate summit, Cop31 in Antalya in Turkey.
Rejecting Rosebank may let the government draw a line under new production and recoup some semblance of leadership. But if Rosebank is approved, the UK will be providing a blueprint that any fossil fuel producer – established or prospective – can follow. Countries suffering from climate upheavals today, and upping the momentum to phase-out fossil fuels, will not let the UK forget it.
Freddie Daley receives funding from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of the SUS-POL Project at the University of Sussex.
Peter Newell receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Research Council for the SUS POL project at the University of Sussex.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/10/22/jackdaw-decision-could-haunt-the-uk-at-future-climate-summits/