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Oil and gas ‘not the problem’ for climate, says UK’s net zero minister (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Campaigners call Graham Stuart’s comments ‘laughable’ and say Conservatives are weaponising climate action

Oil and gas are “not the problem” for the climate, but the carbon emissions arising from them are, the UK’s net zero minister has told MPs.

In words that suggested the UK could place yet more emphasis on technologies to capture and store carbon, Graham Stuart said fossil fuel production was not driving climate change, but demand for fossil fuels, in a bullish defence of the government’s much-criticised stance.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I don't believe that the title is an accurate summary of the person's quote. Based on the body text, he said that he wanted to constrain demand rather than supply. He did not say that oil and gas did not matter.

I don't know what global consensus is on constraining demand rather than supply, but just going off what targets I've seen, I believe that his statement is probably in-line with what is being done around the world. I don't see people talking about constraining extraction, like a country targeting N bcm of extraction of natural gas by year Y. Rather, they talk about constraining consumption, like not emitting more than N amount of carbon dioxide (the emissions being when combustion occurs) or limiting the number of internal combustion engine cars being sold by year Y.

And you want the world to choose either consumption or production to be the constraint, since if some do some and some the other, you won't have any constraint -- just a bunch of permissive suppliers sending to permissive consumers.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I believe the article makes the position of the conservative government quite clear.

Carbon capture isn’t a real thing. It’s a unicorn technology that is used, over and over, to justify the continued development of fossil fuel resources. It’s a “don’t worry, we will figure out a solution before it’s a real problem.” It’s literally the same argument we hear from the CEOs of Exxon and BP. So how are we going about that? Are we strongly capping production until the tech is validated and ready to be deployed at scale? Are we taxing fossil fuel companies at 100% of profits to accelerate development of the technologies?

This is just a step above Trump announcing that his clean coal initiative would allow the US to keep up coal production as long as it gets washed first.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

The suckiest part is, it NEEDS to be a real thing. We're already fucked with what we've dumped in to the atmosphere, and these fucking ghouls want to step on the gas pedal while the car's already teetering on the edge of a cliff...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I don't believe that the title is an accurate summary of the person's quote.

Checks publication ...... makes sense.

That said, the conservative minister should be a bit more savvy and champion increased use of renewables and shout louder about their use rather than the reverse and promoting fossil fuels.

Why there hasn't been a national campaign for home insulation is beyond me. Some forward thinking ten years ago might have seen us in a very different position today which would have, as the minister wants, reduced demand.

Fucking tools.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with oil and gas, it’s emissions from oil and gas that are the problem and that we must focus on.”

You really couldn’t make this crap up. This clown show needs to end, before it ends us all.

Carbon capture is a fantasy, and increasing supply will only encourage demand. The only real path we have is to fully transition away from fossil fuel based energy production, however temporarily painful it may be. We also can’t expect other nations to do something we are not willing to do ourselves.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There is a lot of truth in this tbf. Oil and gas is not the problem, the problem is those that are making billions from the burning of it. If you take all the money out of the equation, I doubt anyone would have an argument to push anymore.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

“I don’t think supply is the key driver – it is demand we need to focus on,” said Stuart, who will attend the Cop28 UN climate summit that begins later this month, where the future of oil and gas production will be under scrutiny.

Earlier this week, in the king’s speech, the government set out plans for new oil and gas licensing in the North Sea, which opposition parties and green campaigners said ran contrary to the UK’s climate goals.

Stuart said the UK had “no problems” on climate policy and was leading the world, in response to questioning from parliament’s environmental audit committee on Wednesday.

A group of more than 80 countries, including the UK, called for the phaseout of fossil fuels at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt last year, and are expected to make the same demand at Cop28 in Dubai.

“To put the blame on demand from consumers, who have been left unsupported by this government, is a new low for a Conservative party who are hell-bent on attempting to weaponise climate action to sow division.”

Robbie MacPherson, political lead at the campaigning group Uplift, said the government was not a world leader on the climate while it was pursuing the expansion of fossil fuels.

The original article contains 617 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!