North Sea oil exploration should not proceed but can, says UK’s climate committee

The chair of the Committee on Climate Change said he would ‘favour’ a moratorium on North Sea exploration but the decision went beyond climate policy. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

The prospects for an expansion of oil and gas drilling in the North Sea have cleared a major hurdle, as the Committee on Climate Change said “stringent tests” must be applied to any new exploration licences but stopped short of saying they could not be issued.

New drilling would not reduce energy bills for UK consumers, the committee found, and its chair, former Conservative environment secretary Lord Deben, said he would “favour” a moratorium on North Sea exploration.