Summary

The world's ecosystems and social structures are threatened by climate change. The greatest single threat comes from burning fossil fuels. The UK Government accepts this, yet it is encouraging a massive new search for oil in an area known as the 'Atlantic Frontier', which lies to the north west of the UK. To stay within ecological limits, identified by scientists advising the UN, less than half of all known fossil fuel reserves can be burnt. Stopping expansion of industrialised country fossil fuels reserves is the first logical step in the longer term phasing out of fossil fuels.

Problem Statement

Governments from around the world signed up to the Climate Convention at Rio in 1992. By doing so, they agreed to limit the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that "would prevent dangerous human-made interference with the climate system". So far, the negotiations have all been about the symptoms of a dangerous energy system, expressed as greenhouse gas emissions, rather than the cause of the problem, which is fossil fuels. It is an absurd approach that is blind to the effects of the growing supply of cheap fossil fuels to emissions control. It is a process that has allowed the UK Government to unlock a major new supply of cheap fossil fuels from the Atlantic Frontier whilst attacking other countries for their lack of action on emissions of greenhouse gases.

The approach that climate protection requires is the establishment of natural limits to climate change. The scientific work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change make it possible to estimate how much fossil fuel can be extracted and burnt, to stay within temperature and sea level rise limits. If a limit of a 1 degree Celsius temperature rise and a 20 cm rise in sea level is adopted, above which scientists believe that "extensive ecosystem damage" may occur, this results in a limit of just over 200 billion tonnes of carbon that can be burnt as fossil fuel over the next hundred years.

The establishment of this 'carbon budget' reveals the true madness of continued oil exploration. Given that existing fossil fuel reserves stand at over 1000 billion tonnes of carbon, this means that 75% of economically recoverable fossil fuels can never be burnt. Every new license given for Atlantic Frontier oil exploration expands this reserve and makes the task of staying within the natural limits of climate change more difficult.

Some Key Facts

• For the oil industry, the Atlantic Frontier is a test bed for new technology and a stepping-stone to other deep oceans such as those found in the Arctic. New combinations of oil technology will be used in depths over 1,500 metres. Over 200 blocks have been allocated, involving over 30 companies, including: BP, Shell, Texaco, Mobil, Amoco, Conoco, British Gas, Total, Elf, Chevron, Esso, Arco and Fina.
• Undiscovered reserves in the West of Shetland area are estimated at up to 15 billion barrels.
• The Atlantic Frontier is the most important wilderness for whales and dolphins in Europe - Blue whales are amongst 22 species of Cetaceans recorded in the area.
• The deepwater fish species of the Atlantic Frontier are slow-breeding and long-lived. They include the orange roughy, black scabbard fish, roundnose grenadier, mora, greater forkbeard, bluemouth and rabbit fish. The area is home to Lophelia corals, some individuals up to 50 metres in diameter and thought to be over 200 years old.
• There has been no formal legal Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Atlantic Frontier development because the UK Government has failed to implement the European Community EIA Directive for offshore operations. The Atlantic Frontier development has been a process of "study-and-drill". The results of the research that has been carried out have not been used to review whether oil exploration should go ahead.

Greenpeace's Involvement in the Issue

Greenpeace campaigns to protect nature from industrial abuse. The Atlantic Frontier campaign aims to protect one 'global commons', the atmosphere, by stopping industrial exploitation of another, the deep ocean environment. We have called on the UK Government to stimulate international negotiations for the phase out of fossil fuels and to make a dramatic shift of investment to sane energy alternatives.

We are working directly with businesses in the UK to overcome the blocks and obstacles to energy solutions such as solar electric. Greenpeace recently collaborated with the UK's largest housing association to double the number of grid-connected solar electric homes in the UK. Writing to the new Prime minister, Tony Blair, Greenpeace made the primary responsibility of the new government clear: "Greenpeace warmly welcomes the priority that you have signalled for the environment in your manifesto commitments to "put concern for the environment at the heart of policy making, so that it is not an add on extra, but informs the whole of government, from housing and energy policy through to global warming and international agreements". Your commitment cannot be met if you allow the continued expansion of fossil fuels and development of the Atlantic Frontier. What will you do now?"

Solutions

In Britain: the Government should halt development of the Atlantic Frontier oilfields. It should start the shift to a genuinely sane energy path. A programme for a minimum of 50,000 homes powered by solar electric by 2010 could be started by redirecting fossil fuel subsidies to solar power. Globally, Greenpeace supports the Alliance of Small and Low Lying Island States in its call for industrial nations to cut CO2 emissions by 20% on 1990 levels by 2005. Any less would require more drastic action later on to stay within safe ecological limits of climate change. A political commitment to begin a fossil fuel phase-out should be made by world leaders at the UN General Assembly Special Session on the Environment in June and the Climate Convention in Kyoto in December.

Relevant Reports

C Rose (1997) Putting a lid on fossil fuels: Why the Atlantic should be a frontier against oil exploration", Greenpeace UK

Professor P Odell (1996) "UK Atlantic Frontier Oil Developments: An Initial Overview" Greenpeace UK

Greenpeace (1996) "A Very British Failure - Government Policy on Solar Power", Greenpeace UK

Greenpeace (1997) "Solar Electric: The Political Challenge", Greenpeace UK

"BP Exploration Foinaven Phase 1 Development, Environmental Assessment", Environmental Consultancy Services Ltd

BP (1995) "Atlantic Frontier Oil Spill Contingency Plan", BP exploration

C Lloyd et al (1991) "The Status of Seabirds in Britain and ireland", T & AD Poyser Ltd

International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) (1995) "Report of the Study Group on the Biology and Assessment of Deep-Sea Fisheries resources"

Berry Marine Consultants (1996) "The Atlantic Frontier Region: A Review of the Offshore Benthic Communities of the North East Atlantic Region (with Particular Reference to the Faroe-Shetland Channel) and the Potential Effects of Proposed Oil Exploration and Production, Greenpeace UK.

Key Contacts

Greenpeace UK
Chris Rose, Deputy Executive & Programme Director, tel: 44 171 865 8100, fax: 44 171 865 8200
Jane Wildblood, Campaign Director, tel: 44 171 865 8100, fax: 44 171 865 8200
Sara Burton, Campaign for Sane Energy Director, tel: 44 171 865 8100, fax: 44 171 865 8200
Mirella von Lindenfels, Press Officer, tel: 44 171 865 8100, fax: 44 171 865 8200
Greenpeace UK, Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN -