The British authorities announced yesterday, Wednesday January 31, the allocation of 24 new hydrocarbon exploration and drilling licenses in the North Sea. This is the continuation of a vast series of new authorizations started in October 2023 in the North Sea.
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This therefore makes 51 new exploration licenses, if we add the 27 already granted in October 2023 by the North Sea Transition Authority. A contradiction for Sarah Fayolle, fossil campaign manager for Greenpeace France: “What we see is that the government continues to bury its head in the sand, and we know that all of this will only fuel climate chaos..”
The most vulnerable populations on the front lines
And, emphasizes Sarah Fayolle, “with on the front line of this climate chaos the populations who are the most vulnerable and the least responsible. So basically, today we need political decision-makers who stop serving the private interests of these giants oil tankers and gas companies, which requires them to stop launching new oil and gas drilling, and to pay for the damage they cause to people and the planet.»
However, the government British don’t want to stop there. With the relaunch of this program in the North Sea, started following the war in Ukraine, London announced that hundreds of additional oil and gas licenses would still be granted.
Trial of Greta Thunberg
These decisions come at the same time as the trial of activist Greta Thunberg, which began on February 1 before a London court. The environmental activist is being tried there for disturbing public order after having disrupted the high mass of the hydrocarbon industry in the British capital in October. In total, 26 activists were then arrested for disrupting access to the Energy Intelligence Forum, a conference which brought together the main oil and gas companies in a luxury hotel in the British capital on October 17, 2023.
(With AFP)
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