North Yorkshire Climate Coalition
Thirsk Friends of the Earth | Zero Carbon Harrogate | CPRE North and East Yorkshire | Climate Action Stokesley and Villages | Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership | Ryedale Environmental Group | Nidderdale Climate + Environment Group | Climate Action Northallerton | Clapham Sustainability Group | Thirsk Churches Ecology Group | North Yorkshire West Federation Women's Institutes Climate Change Action | Pickering Environmental Group | Project Purple Hovingham | Malton and Norton Environmental Group | Kirby Misperton Environmental Group | Action on Climate Emergency (ACE) Settle and Area | Malhamdale Environmental Group | Climate Action Skipton | Kirkbymoorside Environment Group | Fossil Free North Yorkshire | Community Climate Action Group – Sand Hutton, Claxton and Surrounding Villages | Circular Malton and Norton | Our Zero Selby | Knaresborough and Harrogate Friends of the Earth
To: Rt Hon Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Secretary of State, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero
Dear Secretary of State
We, the 24 member groups making up North Yorkshire Climate Coalition, mindful of the enormity and immediacy of the climate crisis we now face, wish to add our voice to that of the many others across the country urging you to reject the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas proposals. These projects would lock the UK into decades of additional fossil-fuel extraction just as the dire consequences of climate change become impossible to ignore.
Independent analyses consistently show that expanding fossil-fuel extraction is incompatible with safe global warming limits. The extreme weather unfolding this summer – including prolonged drought, heatwaves and wildfires, causing many heat-related deaths, widespread habitat loss, soil degradation, and, especially in rural counties such as North Yorkshire, large-scale crop disruption – illustrates the urgency of accelerating our shift away from fossil fuels. As highlighted in HM Government’s own 2026 National Security Assessment, these ecological threats represent direct security risks to national and regional stability, driving severe disruption to critical food, energy and material supply chains.
Approving new extraction would neither protect British citizens nor lower household energy bills. Because gas produced in the UK is sold on volatile global markets, further investment in fossil fuels would not save households a single penny. Instead, it would expose families to continued global price shocks while compounding climate-related crises, leaving local communities to shoulder the environmental liabilities for generations to come. Crucially, by signalling a more ‘pragmatic’ approach to oil and gas extraction, approval would also create a massive opportunity cost, deflecting us from the biggest growth opportunity of the 21st century.
By contrast, Government and independent energy research cited by Carbon Brief shows that expanding renewable energy capacity would ‘displace significantly larger volumes of imported LNG than new North Sea drilling can achieve.’ Furthermore, the recent CBI report highlights the strength and resilience of the UK’s net-zero economy, which has continued to grow even during periods of economic stagnation, attracting investment and creating skilled, well-paid jobs. It is worth noting, for example, that while Rosebank and Jackdaw will provide only around 880 jobs across the country over their lifetimes, clean energy is expected to generate nearly 35,000 direct jobs in the Yorkshire and Humber region alone.
True energy security and sustained cost-of-living reductions come from redirecting capital towards warm, future-proofed housing and modernised clean regional infrastructure. This is how we ensure a secure and skilled economy for the next generation.
The Climate Action Plan produced by the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission in collaboration with the public, private and third sectors is based on a number of key principles. Perhaps the most important of these is that we should ‘Act like it’s an emergency.’ For the sake of our communities, our economy, and the generations who will inherit the consequences of today’s decisions, we urge you to apply that principle by rejecting the Jackdaw and Rosebank proposals and championing the modern, low-carbon policies that will truly deliver secure and affordable energy without further harming our planet.
Kind regards
North Yorkshire Climate Coalition
August 2026