The UK’s leading offshore energy body has said environmental activists could undermine the country’s energy security and hinder its efforts to reach net zero. Protests, legal action and publicity stunts by organisations including Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Greenpeace may deter investment in the North Sea and set back the UK’s efforts to cut emissions, according to Offshore Energies UK (OEUK).
The group’s chief executive Deirdre Michie is due to address colleagues in a speech at OEUK’s annual conference on Tuesday. Activists have refuted her comments, claiming it is the country’s dependence on fossil fuels that undermines energy security, not the people highlighting the problem.
Ms Michie said attempts by pressure groups to block further oil and gas investment in UK waters would make the country increasingly dependent on other countries for energy, which could include Russia. In her speech, she is to emphasise the role oil and gas-derived energy and products have for British consumers, noting that emissions are driven by a country’s infrastructure, and not by the source of its fuels.
