United Kingdom: London awards 24 new oil exploration licenses in the North Sea

The British authorities announced yesterday, Wednesday January 31, the allocation of 24 new hydrocarbon exploration and drilling licenses in the North Sea. This is the continuation of a vast series of new authorizations started in October 2023 in the North Sea.

Oil platform in the North Sea, off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland (illustrative image). AFP - ANDY BUCHANAN

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This therefore makes 51 new exploration licenses, if we add the 27 already granted in October 2023 by the North Sea Transition Authority. A contradiction for Sarah Fayolle, fossil campaign manager for Greenpeace France: “

What we see is that the government continues to bury its head in the sand, and we know that all this will only fuel climate chaos

.”

The most vulnerable populations on the front lines

And, underlines Sarah Fayolle, “

with on the front line of this climate chaos the populations who are the most vulnerable and the least responsible. So basically, today we need policymakers who stop serving the private interests of these

oil

and gas giants, who force them to stop launching new oil and gas drilling, and to pay for the damages they cause to people and the planet.

»

However, the British

government

does not want to stop there. With the relaunch of this program in the North Sea, started following the war in Ukraine, London announced that hundreds of additional oil and gas licenses would still be granted. 

Trial of Greta Thunberg

These decisions come at the same time as the trial of activist Greta Thunberg, which began on February 1 before a London court. The environmental activist is being tried there for disturbing public order after having disrupted the high mass of the hydrocarbon industry in the British capital in October. In total, 26 activists were then arrested for disrupting access to the Energy Intelligence Forum, a conference which brought together the main oil and gas companies in a luxury hotel in the British capital on October 17, 2023.

(

With AFP

)

Also read: The United Kingdom announces “hundreds” of new gas and oil licenses

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