Jackdaw Gasfield Approval Puts Burnham in Climate Row

The Jackdaw gasfield approval is landing on Wednesday morning, and it is already a headline fight about what climate promises are worth. According to The Guardian, Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh and Chancellor John Healey will make the announcement from Aberdeen after more than a year of deliberation.

What is Jackdaw, exactly?

Jackdaw is one of the biggest undeveloped gasfields in the declining North Sea basin, sitting roughly one hundred fifty miles east of Aberdeen. Shell and Norway's Equinor operate it through their joint venture, Adura. The developers say that at full tilt it could supply about six percent of UK gas demand.

The field has a messy history. The previous Conservative government approved it in 2022, but a Scottish court ruled in January last year that the approval was unlawful. The judge said regulators had failed to count the emissions from burning the gas once it is produced. Shell and Equinor then resubmitted their environmental application.

Why Burnham is under pressure

Labour won power in 2024 promising no new North Sea licences. Ministers did not expect to face a decision on Jackdaw or the Rosebank oilfield, but the court ruling forced their hand. Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the Commons last week that he would take a pragmatic approach on oil and gas.

The Guardian reports that officials will argue the approval does not break the manifesto pledge, since this is environmental consent for an existing field and not a brand new licence. Sources told the paper that Fahnbulleh chose not to block the field, leaving the North Sea Transition Authority to sign it off on financial and logistical grounds.

Donald Trump has also urged British leaders to open up the North Sea, and the Telegraph reports that gas prices have hit a four year high. That is the energy security backdrop the government is pointing to.

Climate campaigners are furious

Tessa Khan of the campaign group Uplift told the Guardian that Jackdaw would provide around two percent of gas demand for roughly ten years, and that it has been oversold. She also argued it would not stop the decline in North Sea jobs because the platform will be largely unmanned and operated remotely. Documents reported in July suggested only twenty-seven direct full-time jobs.

A Savanta poll for the climate group E3G, seen by the Guardian, found nearly a third of voters would be less likely to back Labour if it approves more North Sea drilling. That includes about a third of 2024 Labour voters and around half of eighteen to twenty-four year olds, which matters a lot if you are the generation that will live with the consequences.

Ellie Mae O'Hagan of E3G pointed to a summer of deadly heatwaves and said the public had made up its mind that more drilling was the wrong answer.

The industry says it is a lifeline

Unions and business groups see it differently. The Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce has called an approval a hugely important vote of confidence in the North Sea, according to AJ Bell. Local outlet Aberdeen Live has reported that industry sources expect billions in tax revenue and up to three thousand five hundred supported jobs.

Both claims cannot be fully right, and the gap between the numbers is where the real argument lives. Direct jobs on the platform are tiny, while supply chain and tax claims are much bigger and harder to pin down.

The bigger test is still coming

Officials say Rosebank is the more sensitive call. It would produce around seven times the carbon dioxide emissions of Jackdaw, and most of its oil would be exported. A decision on it is expected later this year, and campaigners say that is the defining test of Burnham's climate credibility.

For young voters, the question is simple: does a government that promised to protect the climate get to drill anyway because it is a legal technicality? Expect protests, angry Labour backbenchers and a lot of Green party leaflets. Catch more on this beat in our climate coverage.

We will keep tracking the Jackdaw gasfield approval as the formal announcement lands and the reaction rolls in.