Climate Emergency

Contact:	Christine Thompson 020 3583 0638 chris.cpt3@tiscali.co.uk (email contact preferred) Vacancies
Day & Times:	3rd Wednesday 2.00 - 4.00pm
Frequency & Venue:	Monthly, Surbiton Library
Transport:	Buses K2 and 281

Kingston Climate Emergency group was set up in January 2022 partly because of the inadequate results from COP26. It was called the Climate Emergency group to highlight that we are now in an Emergency situation. We have spent 30 years having interesting discussions, now we need action. We attended the excellent presentation by Brenda Ainsley from Cotgrave & District u3a and some of the Climate surgeries organised by Frances Halliday.

We have since discovered that there is a network at National level Climate Change Subject Network. This connects us to all the other u3as with a climate group. John Baxter is the u3a Subject Adviser and he produces a twice monthly newsletter which gives us stimulation and facts. We use some of this material for discussions. There is also Climate Matters which is part of the u3a – Interest Groups Online . Some of our members attended their monthly meeting with discussion.

We each have individual interests – vegetarianism, population issues, environmental issues, the role of finance. At present we are working by setting ourselves targets and encouraging each other to reach them. One of our members has started washing at 30C, one of our members has not had holidays involving flights since 1999 on principle, another has off set her holiday travel. One of us is running down the money in her bank account because the bank is funding fossil fuel extraction (still!) and nuclear weapon production. Happy to share experiences, questions and answers. And we are seeking to work intergenerationally.

We have published articles in small local magazines and are seeking to influence groups that we are part of. We contacted our 3 local MPs to share our concerns. They happen to be Lib Dems and are sympathetic.

 

Some recent events

Council scorecards

We are reviewing the council scorecards, Climate Emergency UK’s survey of local authority action on climate. This has led to a meeting with Terezie Wickenden, a member of Kingston Council climate team.

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Meeting with Terezie Wickenden of RBK, 19 March 2026

Click here and go to page 5.

 

Visit to Southwark’s Integrated Waste Management Facility, 16 March 2026

Click here and go to page 4.

 

Meeting with Ed Davey MP, 2 June 2025

Click here and go to page 6.

 

Meeting with Sarah Olney MP, 18 September 2024

Click here and go to page 4.

 

Climate Crisis and some solutions – Zoom talk – 2 May 23

Click here and go to page 6.

 

 

Timely article

North Sea oil fields (written July 2026)

Rosebank oil and gas field and Jackdaw gas field are parts of the British region of the North Sea and currently have licences for exploration only. There are other North Sea oil fields that the government could theoretically licence, but that would be against the Labour Party manifesto. Rosebank is operated by Equinor, a Norwegian state company, and Jackdaw by a subsidiary of Shell. This document concentrates on Rosebank as an oil field because it produces much more energy than the two gas fields.

I don’t think anyone who has thought about this subject thinks we can continue to use oil or gas as fuel regardless of the consequences. The most widely quoted target is net zero by 2050. In September 2023, Rishi Sunak announced, among other things, “A five-year delay in the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, meaning a requirement for all new cars to be ‘zero emission’ will not come into force until 2035.” (Ref. 1) As of 18 July 2025, it seems likely that this target will be postponed again.

But we obviously can’t immediately stop using fuel oil and use renewable energy instead. We would have to import the oil from somewhere, probably Russia or the Persian Gulf.

But by law, we are boycotting Russia because of the Ukraine war. Importing from the Persian Gulf is impossible because of the war there. “There are even reports now that Ed Miliband – who previously described the licence issued to Rosebank as ‘climate vandalism’ – could be open to granting consent to the Jackdaw field.” (Ref. 3) It now seems that Rosebank will also be licensed.

But as of now, we are exporting most of the oil we produce, so producing more increases the profit of the oil companies but doesn’t affect us otherwise.

But most of the oil in the North Sea has already been extracted, and Rosebank makes little difference to this. “From the 1960s to 2014 it was reported that 42 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) had been extracted from the North Sea since when production began. As there is still an estimated 24 billion BOE potentially remaining in the reservoir (equivalent to about 35 years worth of production), the North Sea will remain as an important petroleum reservoir for years to come. However, this is the upper end of a range of estimates provided by Sir Ian Wood (commissioned by the UK government to carry out a review of the oil industry in the United Kingdom); the lower end was 12 billion barrels. Wood … said the most likely amount to be found would be between 15 billion and 16 billion barrels.” (Ref. 4) Say 16 billion barrels, or 23 years from 2014, and the last drop of oil will be extracted in 2037.  “It’s estimated that Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, could produce 300 million barrels of oil – but opponents say those could account for 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions” (Ref. 5), and on this basis they will last for 0.43 years (23 x 300 / 16,000).

This article is based on several BBC and Wikipedia websites. The most important are:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66871457 (Ref. 1)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c935yx2z9d4o (Ref. 2)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg5350rp3z2o (Ref. 3)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_oil  (Ref. 4)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-66933804 (Ref. 5)

Bill Chilcott