Update: Is Burnham trying to appease Trump? Or Reform? What other reason is there for these North Sea oil plans? | George Monbiot

A report from The Guardian — Politics focuses on “Update: Is Burnham trying to appease Trump? Or Reform? What other reason is there for these North Sea oil plans? | George Monbiot” and sets out the main development contained in the supplied source material.

Climate catastrophe is on our doorstep – yet Labour’s impending approval of further drilling is expected to bring more pain for negligible gains Pinch yourself, it’s happening again. The report also notes that Here is a Labour government spending a vast amount of political capital to earn tiny material gains while risking huge political losses. It occurred repeatedly under Keir Starmer, and now – with the impending decision to approve further gas and oil drilling in the North Sea – it is happening under Andy Burnham. You rack your brains to explain it, but no rational explanation comes. Burnham is studiously cryptic about his reasons. His clearest statement to date goes as follows: “There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that.” Does he mean that oil and gas workers are struggling? If so, this decision is expected to be of little use to them. The Jackdaw gasfield, likely to be approved this week, is expected to generate a grand total of 27 direct full-time jobs . The Rosebank oilfield, whose approval is likely to follow soon, is expected to support 450 UK-based jobs during its lifetime. Yet the UK’s net zero economy directly employs 300,000 people , and a further 400,000 jobs are planned. The rest of the green economy employs more than 600,000 . A just transition for fossil fuel workers, securing jobs in the green economy, is better for everyone. George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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