No evidence fracking will have impact on price of gas, government adviser says

Exclusive: Lord Deben said the UK “couldn’t possibly” produce enough gas from the North Sea and fracking together to shift the price “in any real way”

There is no evidence that if the UK maximised fracking and North Sea extraction that it would have a meaningful impact on the international price of gas, a government adviser has said.

The UK “couldn’t possibly” produce enough gas from the North Sea and fracking together to shift the price “in any real way,” Lord Deben, Chairman of the independent Climate Change Committee, which advises the government on tackling the climate crisis, told The Independent.

In any case, he said, it presupposes that we can frack gas “commercially, sensibly in Britain” which has “so far has not been seen” and fundamentally doing so would not help tackle the cost of living crisis because the gas will be set at international prices.