Political Opinion: Berkhamsted and Harpenden MP joins parents at Downing Street urging Prime Minister to reject the Rosebank Oil Field

The letter, organised by grassroots climate group Parents For Future UK, was handed in at 10 Downing Street by the group’s Co-Directors, Lucie Brown and Charlotte Howell, alongside MPs Simon Opher (Labour) and Victoria Collins (Lib Dem) - as well as climate campaigner Sarah Finch.

The signatories warn that approving Rosebank, the UK’s largest undeveloped oil field, would be a “climate catastrophe” for our children and call it the first “inescapable climate test” for the government.

The letter was signed by dozens of parents across the UK including notable campaigners, comedians, writers, actors, musicians, academics, and community leaders. Together they represent a growing movement of over 60,000 parents determined to act for children everywhere.

Last year, the Scottish Court of Session ruled the Conservative government’s approval of Rosebank unlawful, finding that it had failed to properly account for the project’s downstream climate impacts.

Ministers then published new guidance on how the environmental impacts of oil and gas developments must now be included in assessments. Norwegian oil and gas giant, Equinor, now needs to submit a new Environmental Impact report for Rosebank. Parents for Future is campaigning to ensure the Prime Minister seizes this opportunity to reject Rosebank once and for all.

The letter to No. 10 comes the week after a national day of #StopRosebank action was coordinated to show a united front against the oil field around the country, and just over a week before leaders around the world gather for the New York Climate Week summit.

Parents across the country are deeply concerned about the impact of the climate crisis on their children’s lives. Research shows that 87% of UK children are worried about the climate crisis and 75% fear the increase of wildfires, floods, food shortages, draughts, and poor air quality.

The letter highlights recent research from UCL showing that burning the oil and gas in existing fields alone would release three times more carbon than is compatible with limiting global heating to 1.5°C – meaning any new oil and gas projects would push the world even further off track.

Lucie Brown, Co-Director of Parents For Future UK, said: “The climate is at a catastrophic tipping point and it’s time for this government to step up and protect it for our children. Approving Rosebank would sacrifice their safety for short-term profit. We are urging the Prime Minister to show real climate leadership by rejecting Rosebank and committing to a safer, renewable-powered future.”

George Monbiot, journalist and environmental activist, said: “There is only one cheap and effective means of carbon capture and storage: leaving fossil fuels in the ground. All other climate policy should flow from that. First we decide to stop extracting fossil fuels, then we build an economy transcending them. To open the Rosebank Field would signal a commitment to remain in the fossil age, committed to 20th Century technologies and the catastrophic impacts of their continued use. The government needs to show it’s better than that.”

Climate campaigner, Sarah Finch said: “Thanks to a landmark legal win in a case I brought on behalf of the Weald Action Group, oil companies can no longer get away with hiding the enormous harm their projects would do to the climate. The government's decision on whether to allow the Rosebank oil development will be the first test of whether this really has changed the future of oil and gas in the UK. The decision is simply a choice between Equinor's profits and a liveable future.”

Matt Winning, comedian and climate change researcher and lecturer at UCL, added: "The whole lives of my son and millions of other children will be shaped by decisions like this. As my colleagues at UCL have pointed out, the science clearly tells us that new oil and gas will make his life difficult. I am asking you to protect it by saying no to Rosebank".