Net-Zero Minister makes clear that ‘oil and gas isn’t the enemy’ in the UK’s climate future

“OIL and gas isn’t the enemy” – and the Government is planning for the UK to still be burning about a quarter of the gas that it does today by its Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions deadline of 2050.

That was the potentially controversial message from the Minister of State for Net Zero – delivered, ironically, as he helped mark a milestone day for the North East’s renewable energy sector this week.

Graham Stuart’s statement to Climate Post was significant because it makes clear that the Government’s definition of ‘Net Zero’ includes a future powered by gas and oil – even though it is working to drive down demand for both.

Authoritative sources, from the inter-governmental International Energy Agency to campaigning groups like Client Earth, agree that oil and gas between them account for more than half the world’s climate-warming greenhouse gases.

Mainly in the form of carbon dioxide, it’s estimated that oil creates about a third of global emissions and oil about a quarter.

But the crucial word in the UK Government’s climate target (and Mr Stuart’s job title) is ‘Net’ – because the Government is not aiming at zero emissions.

Instead, its strategy is to slash emissions but to balance the nation’s reduced climate pollution with new technologies such as carbon capture, which aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus producing a ‘Net’ effect of zero emissions.

The strategy is itself controversial because it was pronounced illegal by the High Court last July, after the Government failed to prove how it would meet the legally binding strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions contained in the 2008 Climate Change Act.

But Mr Stuart, who was speaking to Climate Post after helping open the new operations base for Dogger Bank, the world’s biggest wind farm, was enthusiastic in his support for oil and gas.

“I’m up for getting every drop of oil and gas out of the North Sea that we can, because even under Net Zero, we’re going to be burning about a quarter of the gas that we do today in 2050, and that’s under Net Zero,” he said.

“So oil and gas isn’t the enemy – in a sense it’s demand for fossil fuels that’s the enemy.”

However, Mr Stuart also highlighted what he said were already huge successes in tackling climate change, from the expansion in electric vehicles to the huge boom in offshore wind power.

Ironically, while his words will infuriate climate campaigners pushing for a zero-emissions target, they came as he helped to officially open the new South Tyneside operations base for Dogger Bank, the world’s largest wind farm.

Dogger Bank, due to start coming online later this summer, is one of the flagship projects which Mr Stuart and the Government say show the economic potential of the green energy revolution – opening up new technology and job markets which the Government says it is keen to capitalise on.

Those opportunities are emphasised in a review by Mr Stuart’s predecessor, Chris Skidmore, which Mr Stuart also said would trigger a whole raft of new initiatives from the Government shortly.