Climate News
Jackdaw approved, Rosebank waiting: the North Sea row dividing Labour and the unions
The UK government has approved the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, and the political fight over the larger Rosebank oil field is intensifying, BBC News reports. BBC political editor Chris Mason wrote that tricky energy trade-offs remain after the approval, between climate goals, costs and jobs.
"Jackdaw and Rosebank are case studies in the slow motion awkwardness the UK has over energy." — Chris Mason, via BBC News
Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra is urging the energy secretary to approve Rosebank, the BBC reports. BBC Scotland editor James Cook spent time on board a ship in the untapped field, which is still awaiting its fate.
Not everyone in the labour movement agrees with the focus on oil and gas. Andrea Egan, general secretary of Unison, the UK's biggest trade union, told The Guardian that the Jackdaw decision was "a serious misstep". She said public sector workers are too often treated as an "afterthought" compared with the "massive political focus" on protecting North Sea jobs.
How each outlet framed it
- BBC News — the political trade-offs: climate, bills and jobs, with Scottish Labour pushing for Rosebank and a report from the field itself.
- The Guardian — the split on the left: a major union says oil and gas jobs get more attention than NHS, education and care workers.
What we don't know yet: when the energy secretary will decide on Rosebank, and what conditions, if any, will be attached to an approval.