An open letter signed by 160 academics, civil society leaders, and environmental professionals has been submitted to UK Energy Department Secretary of State Miatta Fahnbulleh, proposing binding geological carbon storage mandates for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields.
Organized by prominent academics from the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, and University College London, the letter does not endorse field developments directly. Instead, it outlines policy conditions necessary to align future North Sea oil and gas extraction with the UK’s statutory 2050 net-zero emissions target.
The signatories contend that while global decarbonization scenarios require rapid reductions in fossil fuel demand, residual oil and gas use will persist for decades in hard-to-abate sectors.
To prevent ongoing extraction from worsening global warming, the group argues that licensing approvals must be explicitly linked to a producer obligation to capture, remove, and permanently store an equivalent volume of carbon dioxide in geological formations.
The letter notes that relying heavily on nature-based carbon removals is inadequate to offset continued fossil fuel combustion, making permanent geological storage an essential prerequisite for ongoing production.
Storage Obligations Could Unlock Private Capital And Reduce Public Subsidies
The proposal highlights that attaching a rising storage obligation to production licenses would create clear market signals, unlocking private capital to scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) infrastructure.
By transferring carbon disposal costs to producers, the government could reduce direct public subsidies for CCS networks, freeing up state funds for priority climate investments such as domestic insulation and renewable energy development.
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Additionally, the signatories emphasize that the UK Continental Shelf possesses vastly more geological CO2 storage capacity than needed for domestic emissions alone, representing a long-term economic opportunity to provide carbon disposal services for mainland Europe.
While acknowledging that issuing new oil and gas consents risks undermining the UK’s international climate leadership, the authors suggest that pioneering a mandatory carbon storage obligation would establish a novel policy blueprint for net-zero-aligned fossil fuel management worldwide.
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