the new British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunakannounced this Wednesday that they will once again ban the extraction of hydrocarbons by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a veto that had been revoked by his predecessor at the head of Government, Liz Truss.
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In the Executive’s first session of control in Parliament as Prime Minister, Sunak assured that will keep in this area the promises of the election program with which his party mate Boris Johnson won the last general election, in 2019, maintaining a moratorium on all hydraulic fracturing projects.
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A spokesman for Downing Street, his official office, later confirmed that the prime minister would reintroduce the moratorium.
A hydraulic fracturing moratorium was announced in 2019 by the Conservative Executive due to the risk of seismic shock, but Truss decided to build it in the UK “to strengthen energy security”after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which affected the supply of hydrocarbons in Europe.
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Rishi Sunak and his finance minister, Jeremy Hunt.
Truss assured that drilling would only start in areas with local approval. To be precise, the vote on that Truss energy plan was one of the last triggers for the downfall of the Executive.
The night before he was forced to resign, the rebellion of dozens of “Tory” deputies who did not want to support his return fracking sowing chaos in the House of Commons, with some deputies accusing those responsible for Conservative parliamentary discipline of “harassment”.
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We want to leave a better environment for our children.
The Conservative Program for the 2019 election states that the hydraulic fracturing ban will not be lifted until “science shows with certainty that it can be done safely”. A Downing Street spokesman confirmed shortly after that the new prime minister wanted to honor this point.
This summer, during his failed campaign to replace Johnson, Sunak had expressed his support for hydraulic fracturing “if the local community supports” the technology.
The lifting of Truss’s moratorium sparked anger and concern among environmentalists, who hydraulic fracturing causes earthquakes and pollution risks and provides little additional energy supply.
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Greenpeace welcomed the changes announced on Wednesday and “calls on Sunak to also stop granting new oil and gas exploration permits.”
During his 49 days in office, Truss also announced that he wanted to revisit the UK’s path to carbon neutrality by 2050 and promised a ‘post-Brexit’ deregulation policy with the possible removal of hundreds of environmental protection laws.
Sunak stresses to UK MPs its “commitment” to honor the UN climate conference agreement COP26, was held last year in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. “We want to leave a better environment for our children,” he assured.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP
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