The climate crisis is not a future or existential threat, but a real and present one for billions of people across the world already. At an international climate justice camp in Lebanon last month – attended by over 400 mobilisers from more than 100 different countries – I heard so many harrowing stories from the frontlines of this crisis. Tuga, a youth climate organiser in Tanzania, shared how, as increasing droughts have made water more scarce in her community, sexual violence has increased. Men have taken control of the only pumps or sources, forcing women to provide sexual acts in order to access water. This is not a stand alone story, all over the world those who are already marginalised due to longstanding oppressive systems – like patriarchy, transphobia, racism and more – are made more vulnerable to the worst impacts of this climate crisis.
Sunak is not only in denial about the seriousness of the climate crisis, but also the reality of the interconnected cost of living crisis for millions of people in the UK. This parallel crisis is driven by unaffordable energy bills and our continued dependency on gas.
As we soon enter into another winter, with energy prices still double what they were two years ago; 5 million people currently in debt to their energy supplier; one in four private renters living in fuel poverty and millions of families having to make the impossible choice between heating and eating, what the public really needed to hear from the Prime Minister was what the government would be doing to address these urgent and material concerns.
Instead, the Prime Minister dropped a list of policies that have never even been proposed by the Conservatives or Labour – from sorting your rubbish into seven different bins to taxes on meat – that Sunak proudly announced he’d be cancelling. The final statement was: “nor will we ban new oil and gas in the North Sea, which would simply leave us reliant on expensive imported energy from foreign dictators like Putin.”
This idea that new oil and gas in the North Sea is needed to tackle both the energy security and cost of living crises is completely untrue. More oil and gas will actually do the opposite: it will leave us beholden to the volatile and expensive gas markets for even longer. Moreover, most of what is left in the ageing North Sea is oil, 80% of which the UK exports, with only tiny amounts of gas left – and any oil and gas extracted in the UK is sold on the global market to the highest bidder. The UK can’t change prices set by international markets, no matter how much we produce in the North Sea, and there is simply no guarantee that any gas extracted in the North Sea will stay in the UK or help anyone with their energy bills.
Ollie Millington