In a move that has electrified the UK’s political landscape and ignited fierce debate, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to remove all net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the North Sea if her party wins the next general election. The announcement, made ahead of a major speech in Aberdeen scheduled for Tuesday, marks the most dramatic pivot away from the UK’s climate commitments by a mainstream party in recent memory.
Badenoch’s plan is nothing short of sweeping. She has promised to focus solely on "maximising extraction"—or, as she put it, "getting all our oil and gas out of the North Sea." This would entail scrapping existing mandates that require companies to reduce emissions, invest in carbon capture and storage, or even work towards electrifying oil and gas platforms. In her own words: "We are in the absurd situation where our country is leaving vital resources untapped while neighbours such as Norway extract them from the same seabed."
The proposal would also see the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA)—the body that currently oversees the issuing of drilling licenses—overhauled. The Conservatives would drop the word "transition" from its name and its mission, replacing the current 12-page mandate with a single instruction: maximize fossil fuel extraction. The party says this would free the sector from what it describes as "unnecessary red tape," including emission reduction requirements and restrictions on venting and flaring, which are currently in place to limit environmental harm.
Badenoch’s argument is rooted in economics and energy security. She points to recent figures from the Office for National Statistics, which indicate that a decline in North Sea oil and gas production has contributed to a slowdown in UK economic growth. "With the ONS confirming that economic growth is down partly because of falling oil and gas extraction, we cannot afford not to be doing everything to get hydrocarbons out of the ground," she said, according to BBC. She also highlighted that Britain has already decarbonised more than any other major economy since 1990, yet faces some of the highest energy prices in the developed world. "This is not sustainable and it cannot continue. That is why I am calling time on this unilateral act of economic disarmament and Labour’s impossible ideology of net zero by 2050," Badenoch declared.
The Conservative leader’s stance is not without precedent. In 2023, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak granted 100 new drilling licenses in the North Sea, arguing that it was "entirely consistent" with net zero commitments. However, Badenoch’s plan goes further, effectively abandoning the net zero target altogether—something she has previously described as "impossible" to achieve by 2050 without bankrupting the country.
The timing of Badenoch’s announcement is no accident. It comes as the UK grapples with rising energy prices and growing anxiety over energy security, particularly in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine. "Russia’s war in Ukraine has only underscored that our energy supplies are a matter of national security," Badenoch said, echoing concerns that have reverberated across Europe since the conflict began.
Not everyone is on board with the Conservatives’ new direction. The Labour government has already committed to banning new exploration licenses in the North Sea, arguing that opening new fields "would not take a penny off bills, cannot make us energy secure, and will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis," according to a spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Labour’s Ed Miliband has doubled down on the party’s net zero plans, insisting that ending fossil fuel production and investing heavily in clean energy like offshore wind and hydrogen will ultimately bring down bills and boost energy security. "We’ll take no lectures from Kemi Badenoch. Every family and business paid the price of the Conservatives’ failure to secure the UK’s energy," a Labour spokeswoman told ITV News. "The Conservatives oversaw thousands of lost jobs in the North Sea. In contrast, this Labour government is investing in the North Sea’s clean energy future, creating good jobs in offshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, as we take back control of our energy for good."
Environmental groups have been quick to condemn Badenoch’s proposal. Tessa Khan, executive director of the research and campaign group Uplift, described the plan as "reckless." She argued, "These rules are the bare minimum needed to hold the industry to account, and removing them will simply mean more emissions, more environmental harm and more handouts to oil and gas giants at the nation's expense." Tim Farron, environment spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, called scrapping emission reduction requirements "nothing short of irresponsible environmental vandalism." He added, "The UK should be setting our sights on leading the world in clean energy, in offshore wind, instead of falling back to a dependency on fossil fuels."
Industry voices, however, have largely welcomed Badenoch’s approach. David Whitehouse, chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, said, "As long as the UK continues to use oil and gas, it makes sense to produce as much of it as we can here at home. Every barrel of oil and gas we leave in the North Sea is a barrel we’ll need to import. Even in a net zero future, the UK will use 10-15 billion barrels of oil and gas between now and 2050. Current plans show the UK will produce less than four billion barrels, leaving us increasingly reliant on imports. Producing it here supports jobs, strengthens our economy, and improves our energy security."
The Scottish government, meanwhile, has struck a more cautious note. Gillian Martin, Scotland’s energy secretary, emphasized the need to plan for a "maturing" North Sea basin and to transition to new fuels in a way that protects both energy security and the region’s skilled workforce. "Too many are offering easy answers when what we need are the right answers," she said, according to BBC.
The debate is unfolding against a stark backdrop: 2024 was officially the hottest year on record since 1850, with average temperatures exceeding 1.5°C. The UK, as one of 200 nations that signed the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, had pledged to limit temperature rises to 1.5°C and keep them "well below" 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels. The current government has pointed to "the biggest ever investment in offshore wind and three first-of-a-kind carbon capture and storage clusters" as evidence of its commitment to a fair and orderly transition in the North Sea—investments that many climate experts say are essential to meeting international obligations and averting dangerous climate change.
As Badenoch prepares to deliver her speech in Aberdeen, the stage is set for a fierce contest over the future of the UK’s energy policy. The choice between maximizing fossil fuel extraction and accelerating the shift to renewables is no longer just a technical debate—it’s a defining issue for Britain’s economy, environment, and global standing.
