RSPB chief executive Beccy Speight raps Government over Jackdaw gas field go-ahead

                                          

Let the gas flow - the Jackdaw rig (photo:Adura)

THE chief executive of the RSPB, Beccy Speight, has spoken out against this week's announcement that the Government has approved further extraction of gas from the Jackdaw rig in the North Sea.

Says she: "Drilling in Jackdaw will have no meaningful impact on the UK’s energy security or household bills, whereas expanding fossil fuel extraction of any kind will risk deepening the pressures facing species and habitats across the UK from the growing impacts of climate change. 

"Our changing climate is already shifting the spaces birds can live in.

"Many are finding their food supply is no longer available at the right time to feed their chicks. 

"Extreme weather, exacerbated by climate change, is also impacting breeding success and survival. 

"In a worst-case scenario of high carbon emission levels, some seabird species in the UK, which are particularly vulnerable, are estimated to decline by more than 70per cent by 2050."

                                              

Beccy Speight - furious with the decision

Ms Speight goes on to urge the Government not to approve drilling at the much larger  Rosebank oil and gas field which is also in the North Sea.

"The Government must not make the same mistake again," she says. "It should not be approving either Jackdaw or Rosebank. 

"Instead, its focus must be on rapidly cutting emissions, scaling up clean renewable energy and restoring our peatlands and other carbon-rich habitats that are essential for both climate and nature's recovery."