The world is boiling so why on earth are the Tories turning up the gas?

The government is taking us for a ride by announcing its intention to issue hundreds of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, writes Mike Berners-Lee. It’s the weaponising of the issue for political gain that really galls

By the time these new oilfields come online, the UK should be mostly independent from fossil fuels (Getty/PA)

You almost couldn’t make it up. Just as the climate is signalling more strongly than ever that we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, the UK government has today announced that they will issue hundreds of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

Temperature records around the world have been not just broken, but smashed. Various parts of the world are seeing their worst wildfires on record. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a key component of the Gulf Stream, could be dangerously close to collapse.

Global food security is alarmingly fragile – as India’s recent ban on certain rice exports demonstrates. The UN, the International Energy Agency and thousands of climate scientists are all unequivocal: there is no room for any new fossil fuel extraction if we are to have any hope of averting climate breakdown. As the head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, warned just three days ago: “The era of global boiling has arrived.”