Britain’s top court delivered a blow to UK oil drilling, in a ruling on the impact of burning fossil fuels that was heralded by Greenpeace as a “huge win for the climate.”
Judges said local authorities were wrong to give permission for an oil development near London’s Gatwick Airport because they failed to consider the wider impact of burning more than three million tons of oil that will be taken from the site.
“The courts have finally recognized that the government can’t ignore emissions released by burning fossil fuels when granting drilling licenses,” said Mel Evans, a climate activist at Greenpeace UK, which intervened in the case.
Supreme Court judges sided with local campaigners, Weald Action Group, ruling in a 3-2 decision that Surrey County Council only accounted for emissions from the drilling site itself. UK laws require an environmental assessment before it can give planning permission.
“The council’s failure to assess the effect on climate of the combustion of the oil that would be produced from the proposed well site means that its decision to grant planning permission for the project was unlawful,” Judge George Leggatt said in the ruling on Thursday.
The oil developer, Horse Hill Developments Ltd., which is controlled by UK Oil & Gas Plc, applied to extend the existing well site and drill four new wells.
The ruling highlights how so-called Scope 3 emissions, which arise when the extracted oil is burned, need to be considered, the campaigners behind the case said.
Source: www.rigzone.com
