A petition to Stop Rosebank oil field has been launched by Change.org and sponsored by Stop Rosebank, calling on Equinor and its owner the Norwegian Government to stop Rosebank and all new oil and gas fields, following the UK government’s approval in September for the project.
The oil giant Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian government, wants to open up Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK located west of Shetland – the oil and gas from which will be sold on the open market. This one field alone would produce more CO2 than the poorest 28 countries do in a year.
Uplift, a campaign group, said that the UK would struggle to benefit from Rosebank as most of the oil would be processed abroad. It’s believed that Rosebank would blow past UK climate targets, and threaten endangered marine life while doing nothing to improve our energy security or lower our energy bills. It will also cost the UK billions. Due to a loophole in the windfall tax, Equinor will receive billions in tax breaks to develop Rosebank.
Reuters reports that the windfall tax includes an investment incentive that means oil and gas firms can offset from their tax bill around 91 pounds in every 100 pounds spent on new production. We taxpayers will be footing the bill while Equinor profits.
Norway presents itself as a ‘climate leader’ at the same time as their state-owned oil company Equinor announces plans to burn more oil and gas than is compatible with a liveable future. In 2022, 99.87% of Equinor’s energy production were fossil fuels and only 3% of Equinor’s investments went to renewables. By allowing Equinor to throw fuel on the climate crisis, Norway is ignoring warnings from the United Nations, the International Energy Agency and global scientists that we can have no new fossil fuel projects if we want to limit global warming to 1.5℃ and avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
While the world suffers from record-breaking temperatures, wild fires and flooding, Equinor celebrates record-breaking profits. As long as it allows Equinor to open new fossil fuel projects, the Norwegian government, like the UK will be on the wrong side of history and future generations will not thank them! The petition calls on the Norwegian government to use its power as majority-owner to stop this climate-wrecking project.
The power to make them #StopRosebank is in our hands.
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