Plea for impact review before fracking starts

A MORATORIUM on fracking for shale gas should not be lifted without an in-depth review of its climate impacts, Government advisers have warned.

The Committee on Climate Change also warned a new target to cut emissions from UK offshore oil and gas production by 50 per cent by 2030 was much less than their recommendations and stronger policies should be introduced.

Weak policies on tackling domestic oil and gas emissions would hinder efforts to cut the UK’s greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050, and risk damaging Britain’s authority as president of the Cop26 international climate summit, a letter from the committee said.

Planned reviews ahead of new licensing rounds for offshore oil and gas to see if they were climate compatible would have to “present a transparent and coherent case to justify proceeding” with new rounds, it added.

Committee on Climate Change chairman Lord Deben has written to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on the compatibility of UK onshore oil and gas with climate efforts, as part of the committee’s advisory role to Government, and also looked at offshore production.

There is a moratorium on onshore exploitation of oil and gas through fracking, a controversial process that prompted public opposition

over minor earthquakes and fears about traffic and pollution from operations.

And the Government has a legal target to cut greenhouse gases to net zero in the UK by 2050, which requires cutting emissions as much as possible and taking steps such as planting trees to counter remaining pollution.

Three tests previously set out by the Climate Change Committee – to limit emissions from fracking wells; keep gas consumption in line with targets for carbon cuts; and offset production emissions with reductions elsewhere – are now more difficult to achieve with the net-zero goal, it said.

Oil consumption must fall by nearly half by 2035 and gas needs to be reduced by 65 per cent by then, to meet net zero, the letter warned.

But the UK will still need supplies beyond declining sources from the North Sea and Norway for decades, and shale gas could be a cleaner option than imported liquified natural gas (LNG), the letter said.

In the face of climate action, gas could be used with “CCS” technology to capture carbon emissions and store them permanently underground, but the tech would still not be zero-emissions, and has made little progress so far.

There is concern that as fracking is unpopular, if the public link it to the development of hydrogen – a clean fuel but one which could be made from natural gas extracted by the process – it could risk acceptance of hydrogen.

There have been a number of fracking controversies. Ineos sought to carry out test drilling in Woodsetts, near Rotherham, while there was a four-year battle over plans in Ryedale, North Yorkshire.

Gas needs to be reduced by 65pc by 2035 to meet net zero. Committee on Climate Change chairman Lord Deben’s letter.