We write as environmental and social scientists in response to the extraordinary claims by the climate minister, Graham Stuart, that fracking and oil drilling are “good for the environment” and the economy (12 October). The reality is quite different. First, Mr Stuart’s claim about the supposed lower carbon intensity of UK oil and gas extraction pales into insignificance compared with the carbon implications of adding to overall extraction of fossil fuels, and flies in the face of the warning by the International Energy Agency that no new oil, gas or coal development can take place if the world is to reach net zero by 2050.
Second, new UK oil and gas will lock in dependency on infrastructure that will become increasingly useless as the UK moves towards its emission reduction target. Third, the signal that such a move sends ahead of next month’s Cop27 summit is damaging to the UK’s credibility, as Lord Deben of the Climate Change Committee has made clear.
