We will continue to rely on oil and gas to meet our energy needs for decades to come, even if the Government reaches its target of achieving Net Zero by 2050. Therefore the real choice is not whether to use oil and gas, but whether we produce it here or buy it from abroad.
Domestic production now covers less than a third of our gas supply, and the gap is increasingly filled by imported liquefied natural gas, which is both more expensive and roughly three times more carbon-intensive to produce and ship than gas extracted from our own waters. Choosing to import rather than extract does not lower emissions; it simply exports them, along with the loss of tens of thousands of British jobs.
That's why the next Conservative Government will end the ban on new North Sea licences, scrap the Energy Profits Levy, and give the industry's regulator a clear mandate to maximise extraction rather than manage its decline. Restoring investment in the North Sea means more secure energy for people in Beverley and Holderness, thousands of skilled jobs protected here at home, and lower emissions than the alternative of importing the same resources from further afield.
I believe that is a more effective climate policy: producing what we still need under our own high environmental standards, rather than outsourcing both the extraction and the emissions to someone else.