North Sea plan allows drilling while enabling Labour to keep ‘no new

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has returned from the Cop30 climate conference in Brazil, where he championed the UK’s world-leading promise to ban all new oil and gas licences and backed the call for a blueprint to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

Back at home, the government says it is sticking to its manifesto pledge by becoming the first major economy to have a 1.5C- and climate science-aligned no new licences position, but it plans to allow some new drilling in oil and gas fields that have existing licenses.

The North Sea strategy, released on Wednesday alongside the autumn budget, will introduce “transitional energy certificates” that will allow new drilling on or near existing fields. These are called “tiebacks” and will enable a small amount of new fossil fuel extraction. The government argues that this will help ensure they remain economically viable and are managed for the entirety of their lifespan.

Environmental campaigners say this will result in a relatively low amount of fossil fuel extraction. Tessa Khan, the executive director of the environmental nonprofit Uplift, said: “This government is right to end the fiction of endless drilling. The North Sea is an ageing basin, with most of the gas already burned, and new licensing will do nothing to stem the decline in jobs.

“We now need this government to be bolder – to make sure the jobs and wealth generated from the shift to clean energy reach UK workers and communities, and to ensure we maintain a livable climate. That means a proper plan for workers and an end to all new fields, including the huge Rosebank oilfield.”

Analysis from Uplift, based on NSTA (North Sea Transition Authority) and Rystad data, shows that new discoveries within a 30-mile (50km) radius of existing production sites contain just 25m barrels of oil and another 20m barrels’ worth of oil equivalent in gas. For context, the Rosebank oilfield – a decision on which is due imminently – would involve the extraction of nearly 500m barrels of oil and gas-equivalent over the course of its lifetime.

In the budget, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced that fuel duty had been frozen until next September after a campaign from the Sun newspaper and rightwing MPs. The tax was designed to increase by 1p plus the rate of inflation annually, to incentivise drivers to use greener forms of transport. However, since 2010, every chancellor has kept rates frozen which, according to the Social Market Foundation (SMF), has meant the real value of fuel duty has tumbled and the equivalent of 81p in 2010 terms is now worth 53p today. The 15-year freeze has cost the exchequer more than £130bn, it is estimated.

Research from the SMF has found the freeze saves the richest households, who tend to drive larger cars, considerably more than it does the poorest, who are far less likely to own a car. It also fails to incentivise switching to electric vehicles or public transport. This needs to happen if the UK is…