Campaigns in the UK
Here you can find information about the local efforts against Equinor's fossil fuel expansion and ways you can get involved.
Here you can find information about the local efforts against Equinor's fossil fuel expansion and ways you can get involved.
The Rosebank oil field has become a lightning rod for controversy in energy and climate policy in the UK, with Equinor being framed as an iconic case of private profit, public poverty and runaway climate breakdown.
The Stop Rosebank campaign was launched in September 2022. It brings together a broad coalition of climate groups and organisations including Uplift, Greenpeace UK, 350.org, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Tipping Point, Fossil Free London, as well as individuals and grassroots groups across the UK.
Almost 160,000 people from across the UK have signed a petition to the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak against the field, and 80,000 people have signed a petition to the Norwegian Prime Minister demanding that he intervenes to stop Equinor’s climate-wrecking plans.
Marine groups have joined the campaign due to the impact the project could have on the unique Faroe-Shetland sponge belt, through which Rosebank’s pipeline would run. An oil spill from Rosebank could severely impact 16 marine protected areas.
More than 200 organisations and 700 academics have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging him to end approvals for all new oil and gas developments including Rosebank.
The Stop Rosebank campaign has secured support across the political spectrum, including from the Shadow Minister for Climate and Energy Ed Miliband, MP for the Green Party Caroline Lucas, and Chris Skidmore, former head of the Government's Net Zero Review.
Following the UK government’s approval of Rosebank in September 2023, more than 40 actions were organised up and down the country.
In December 2023, Uplift and Greenpeace UK announced that they were mounting separate legal challenges seeking to overturn the UK government’s decision to allow development of Rosebank. Uplift and Greenpeace UK argue that the approval is unlawful because it ignores the impact of emissions from burning Rosebank’s oil, it is not compatible with the government’s plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and achieve a safe climate, and it would damage a protected area of the North Sea and the diverse marine life it supports.
Based in the UK?
The campaign to stop the new gas burning power station in Peterhead was launched in Spring 2024. It brings together climate, conservation and fuel poverty groups, with 44 organisations across Scotland signing an open letter to the Scottish Government urging them to reject the project.
Workshops across Scotland have brought the climate movement together to think about how to collaborate across the movement to resist this new piece of fossil fuel infrastructure. Activists have staged protests at Equinor’s Aberdeen offices on the day of their AGM, as well as at the offices of SSE, the project’s other developer, to highlight the companies’ commitment to the continued extraction and burning of gas.
The new Peterhead power station is a litmus test for the viability of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the UK. So far, no CCS plant in the world has managed to capture carbon at the rates that Equinor and SSE are claiming that this one will, and the technology has a long history of failure, despite huge amounts of public money being poured into it. The Acorn project, which would theoretically transport and store the carbon captured under the North Sea, is not even in the planning system yet and will not be operational by the time the new power station is built.
The campaign to stop the new gas power station in Peterhead is a key part of resisting fossil fuels in Scotland. This is a huge new piece of fossil fuel infrastructure, and since it is being built onshore rather than in the North Sea, it is under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Government rather than the UK Government. We believe that we can win this by putting pressure on key targets like Equinor, and showing the breadth of resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure.
If you’re in Scotland, you can: