Rishi Sunak announced that hundreds of new oil and gas licences will be granted in the UK despite spiralling warnings of the threat from global warming.
He also confirmed that the North East Scotland and the Humber have been chosen as locations for two new carbon capture usage and storage clusters.
The Government stressed that this would boost a “thriving clean industry” in the North Sea which could support up to 50,000 jobs.
The Government and the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) announced a joint commitment to undertake future licensing rounds, which will continue to be subject to a climate compatibility test.
Before boarding a private jet to Aberdeenshire, Mr Sunak said the new rounds for drilling were “absolutely the right thing to do”.
“Even when we reach net zero in 2050 a quarter of our energy needs will still come from oil and gas, and domestic gas production has about a quarter of a third of the carbon footprint of imported gas,” he told BBC Radio Scotland.
“So not only is it better on our energy security not to rely on foreign dictators for that energy, not only is it good for jobs, particularly Scottish jobs, it is actually better for the environment because there is no point in importing stuff from half way around the world with two to three times the carbon footprint of the stuff we’ve got at home, that makes absolutely no sense.”
However, his move infuriated environmentalists and some MPs, and possibly an increasing number of citizens alarmed at climate change with wildfires and very high temperatures in southern Europe and America fuelling fears over the dangers to the planet.
Baroness Jenny Jones, of the Green Party, said: “This incompetent Government has made lots of stupid and short-sighted decisions but this is the worst.
“At a time when the majority of the population accepts that climate change is happening and we have to do something about it as a nation, they are moving in entirely the wrong direction.”
Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, the Government’s former “net zero tsar”, said the plan was “on the wrong side of modern voters” and pressed for an emergency debate as soon as the House of Commons returns from recess in September.
Mr Sunak was warned last month by Britain’s climate change watchdog not to “mess around” by delaying action until after the General Election to get Britain back as a world leader in tackling climate change.
Chris Stark, chief executive of Britain’s Climate Change Committee, said the country had fallen behind other nations in the fight against global warming amid Tory infighting in Government.
Lord Zac Goldsmith, former MP for Richmond Park, resigned a few weeks ago as was minister for the international environment, slamming the Prime Minister for allegedly not being sufficiently focused on eco-issues.
In his resignation letter, the former editor of the Ecologist magazine and one of the most high profile Tories with an expertise on the environment, said: “The problem is not that the Government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our Prime Minister, are simply uninterested.
“That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.”
The Prime Minister, though, on Monday argued that the new oil and gas drilling licences for the North Sea would help the UK achieve net zero carbon emissions.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: "Even when we reach net zero in 2050 a quarter of our energy needs will still come from oil and gas."
He said using domestic oil and gas would be better for the environment than importing it.
The NSTA, which is responsible for regulating the oil, gas and carbon storage industries, is currently running the 33rd offshore oil and gas licensing round.
They expect the first of the new licences to be awarded in the autumn, with the round expected to award over 100 licences in total.
The Government insisted that future licences will be critical to providing energy security options, unlocking carbon capture usage and storage and hydrogen opportunities – “building truly integrated offshore energy hubs that make the best use of the established infrastructure”.
Ministers also highlighted a new analysis released by the NSTA which showed that the carbon footprint of domestic gas production is around one-quarter of the carbon footprint of imported liquefied natural gas.
