Fracking site approved in England, Underground Coal Gasification banned in Scotland

There were two important announcements yesterday regarding 'unconventional fossil fuels' in the UK. First, the UK Government announced that it was approving fracking at a site in Lancashire for fracking firm Cuadrilla. They've postponed taking a decision on a second site. This fracking had been rejected by the local community but central Government decided to take the final decision and 'called in' both applications.

 

In Scotland, meanwhile, the Scottish Government has announced that it has ruled out giving the go ahead to any underground coal gasification (a technique for turning coal trapped beneath the earth into gas that can be used). 

 

The RSPB welcomes the decision in Scotland and Lloyd Austin, head of Conservation Policy in Scotland, said yesterday “we are at a critical time in Scotland where we need to move to sustainable, low carbon energy and at the same time protect our natural environment, which is under ever-increasing pressure.

 

"Our understanding of the potential impacts of UCG is still limited. Given sites being investigated in the Firth of Forth include some of our most important places for marine wildlife including internationally protected seabirds, we welcome that the Scottish Government has taken a precautionary approach, resisted pressures to rush ahead with this technology and put the protection of the environment and local communities first.”

 

The decisions yesterday represent increasingly divergent paths between England, which is pressing ahead with unconventional forms of fossil fuels, and the rest of the UK which is, it appears, turning away from such energy sources.

 

The RSPB considers that any fracking that does go ahead must do so under the tightest possible environmental regulations. I recently wrote a blog setting out what progress there has been against the recommendations we made two years ago. I spoke about these recommendations and the risks of not implementing them properly last week at the UK Shale Gas conference.

 

Furthermore, there is a growing question mark over the compatibility of fracking with the UK's climate change commitments. At a time when the UK Government is supposed to be producing a plan to set out how it will meet our future carbon budgets, it is important that they respond to questions from bodies such as the Committee on Climate Change around how fracking will fit with tackling our emissions. The Committee concluded only recently that fracking would not be compatible with the UK's carbon budgets unless new regulations were introduced (which they have not been).

 

The regulatory regime that, despite some improvements, still does not sufficiently protect nature, and the climate risks of fracking, lead the RSPB to conclude that until something significant changes the UK is not currently fit to frack.

 

The RSPB considers that truly low-carbon forms of energy, alongside demand reduction and efficiency measures, should be prioritised over new fossil fuel infrastructure that could lock us in to unsustainable carbon emissions. Green Alliance brought out a report this week setting out the gains that can be made by investing in the revolutionary demand side and efficiency technologies that are now available as opposed to choosing large new energy infrastructure that we have traditionally opted for.

 

We set out a plan for what this could look like, and how it could be achieved in harmony with nature, in our recent Energy Vision report.