The British government continues to bankroll extraction activities in the North Sea, at taxpayers' expense. Hence the legal action brought by activists.
"Billions of pounds of public money have been wasted supporting the gas and oil industry. We say: never again." With these words, three activists, backed by a broad coalition of NGOs, announce that they have launched legal action against the British government. They are asking anyone who cares about the planet to stand on their side by signing the online petition Paid to pollute, addressed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The initiative has been launched by three activists: Mikaela Loach, a medical student with a large social media following and co-host of the podcast The Yikes; Jeremy Cox, a retired former refinery worker who converted to the environmental cause through the ranks of Extinction Rebellion; and Kairin van Sweeden, executive director of the think tank Modern Money Scotland. Among their supporters is a long list of environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth, 350.org and Greenpeace UK.
A report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, after analysing G20 countries' fossil fuel financing, places the United Kingdom last among the 11 OECD members. "It lacks transparency and continues to provide significant financial support to fossil fuel consumers, forgoing tax revenues of $9.2 billion every year," the study reads. Tallying up the subsidies granted to fossil fuels between 2017 and 2019 in various forms, the study arrives at an astronomical total: €13.6 billion.
Since the signing of the Paris Agreement, the Paid to pollute website states, approximately €3.7 billion has been allocated to extraction activities in the North Sea alone. All told, the campaign points out, the major oil companies have received more money from the British government than they have paid in taxes. Between 2015 and 2019, BP is up by €785 million, Canadian Natural Resources by €679 million, ExxonMobil by €532 million and Shell by €435 million.
The legal action is directed at the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), which has chosen to focus on extraction activities in the North Sea. "The OGA's new strategy encourages companies to produce oil and gas without considering the economic repercussions this will have on public finances and on the United Kingdom as a whole," explains Rowan Smith, a solicitor at the firm Leigh Day, which is pursuing the case.
The body has a legal duty to "maximise economic recovery": but while immediate gains sit on one side of the scales, the medium- and long-term consequences and the public money spent propping up the oil and gas industry sit on the other. Weighing up costs and benefits, "the case argues that this is unlawful, with reference to the terms of the OGA's legal duty, and also irrational, because it will result in increased oil and gas production that conflicts with the UK's legal duty to reach net zero emissions by 2050," concludes solicitor Smith.
