Former leader of the Conservative party Iain Duncan Smith has described the government’s pledge to reach net zero as a “new religion.”
“Dangerous moments in politics happen when the opinion of the political class coalesces and all debate is ended,” Duncan Smith posted on Twitter. “So it has been with the new religion of Net Zero.”
Duncan Smith said that under the banner of net zero the UK has allowed North Sea oil and gas exploration to “nigh on disappear” and has transitioned from being a net exporter of gas with lots of storage to a net importer with little storage.
He lamented that as the government “belatedly” accepts it has to acquire more North Sea gas, it is closing down existing land-based shale gas wells.
“It makes no strategic sense,” he said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that the UK may have to increase its output of oil and gas in order to reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuels.
The Times has reported that Johnson is set to announce plans for new drilling in the North Sea for the first time in three years amid rising energy prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Independent has not verified the report.
Duncan Smith is among a small but outspoken number of Conservative MPs who have criticised the government’s roadmap to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In January, a group of MPs — that did not include Duncan Smith — wrote a letter to The Telegraph calling on the government to expand North Sea exploration and to support shale gas extraction.
Some politicians outside the Conservative party are also making their voices heard. In an indication that the subject is becoming increasingly politicised, Nigel Farage launched a campaign last weekend calling for a referendum on the government’s net zero aim. The government aims to cut planet-heating carbon emissions to net zero by mid-century by transitioning to renewable energy among and protecting the natural environment among other measures.
Jim Watson, professor of energy policy at University College London, told The Independent it was not true that the government had allowed North Sea oil and gas to disappear.
“The North Sea is a mature basin, and production peaked (of oil and gas) in 1999/2000,” he said. “Declining production was inevitable because a lot of the oil and gas has already been extracted.”
Watson said however that it was true that UK storage had dwindled leaving the country more vulnerable to price volatility.
“Having more storage won’t insulate the UK that much from high prices which are a product of the international gas market — but it is important that the government looks again at the case for more storage given the current situation,” he said.
As for the extraction of shale gas, Rob Gross, director of the UK Energy Research Centre told The Independent it was open to question if the UK could extract enough shale gas to make a material impact on our gas supplies and said it is unlikely extracting shale gas would drive down gas prices because they’re set through international markets.
“The shale gas that we’d produced in this country wouldn’t be gas that we could just keep,” he said. “It would make no sense to produce shale gas and then not sell it at the going market price.”
“The UK has no issues with gas supply. The issues we are facing are a result of high international gas prices, rather than security of supply,” a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said in a statement.
The spokesperson said the UK’s exposure to volatile gas markets underscored the importance of the government’s plan to generate more cheap, clean renewable energy and nuclear power domestically to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
“However, this transition cannot happen overnight, which is why we will continue to back North Sea production,” the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson said the government would set out an energy strategy on the UK’s long-term plans for greater energy security.
