Tories pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea

Kemi Badenoch plans to remove all net zero requirements for oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea and to prioritise maximising extraction. The Conservative proposal would eliminate emissions reduction obligations and stop work on technologies such as carbon storage. Badenoch described leaving vital resources untapped as absurd while neighbours extract from the same seabed. Reform UK wants more fossil fuels extracted from the North Sea. The Labour government has committed to banning new exploration licences and said new fields would not cut bills, would not improve energy security, and would accelerate the climate crisis. The UK remains legally bound to reach net zero by 2050.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said her party will remove all net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the North Sea if elected. Badenoch is to formally announce the plan to focus solely on "maximising extraction" and to get "all our oil and gas out of the North Sea" in a speech in Aberdeen on Tuesday. Reform UK has said it wants more fossil fuels extracted from the North Sea.

The Labour government has committed to banning new exploration licences. A spokesperson said a "fair and orderly transition" away from oil and gas would "drive growth". Exploring new fields would "not take a penny off bills" or improve energy security and would "only accelerate the worsening climate crisis", the government spokesperson warned. Badenoch signalled a significant change in Conservative climate policy when she announced earlier this year that reaching net zero would be "impossible" by 2050.

Now Badenoch has said that requirements to work towards net zero are a burden on oil and gas producers in the North Sea which are damaging the economy and which she would remove. The Tory leader said a Conservative government would scrap the need to reduce emissions or to work on technologies such as carbon storage. Badenoch said it was "absurd" the UK was leaving "vital resources untapped" while "neighbours like Norway extracted them from the same sea bed".

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