Protecting the Arctic

What happens in the Arctic will affect the UK, impacting our weather systems and biodiversity. Yet this Government is complacently standing by and watching new oil and gas drilling even though companies like Shell cannot prove they can drill safely in such harsh conditions. The lack of proven oil spill response techniques and the fact that the world already has more proven oil and gas reserves than can be burnt without exceeding a global average temperature rise of 2 degrees - widely regarded as a dangerous threshold - makes exploring for new reserves in the extreme Arctic environment needlessly risky. This report challenges the Government to set out how future Arctic oil and gas extraction could be reconciled with its commitment to limit global temperature increases to below 2 degrees. Questions raised by US regulators following the Kulluk incident in 2012 - when one of Shell's rigs ran aground - reinforces the case for a moratorium on new drilling. Following the setbacks Shell's Arctic drilling programme suffered in 2012, it has announced a pause for the 2013 season.
Nevertheless, there remain important questions about Shell's 2012 operations, which the Committee will put to the company once continuing US regulatory investigations are complete. The rapidly disappearing Arctic sea ice should be a wake-up call for his Government to tackle climate change, not pave the way for a corporate carve up of the region's resources