The argument for North Sea drilling as a solution for energy and food security is flawed - Yorkshire Post Letters

People raise valid concerns about energy and food security, but the argument for North Sea drilling as a solution is flawed.

Whilst importing fossil fuels via diesel‑powered vessels has higher emissions than local production, the logic that domestic extraction therefore solves the problem overlooks a fundamental truth: North Sea reserves are depleting rapidly. New fields take years to reach production, offer no price insulation from global markets, and lock us into infrastructure we must eventually abandon anyway when the area runs dry.

Decarbonisation, by contrast, permanently reduces imports.

I support rooftop solar to minimise the use of land, and the Government is doing just that through the Future Homes Standard for new builds and measures such as zero VAT on solar panels and the Warm Homes Plan to support retrofitting. But it won’t be enough and I'd also like to see more solar farms with grazing and wind turbines on farmland which should also be wildlife friendly.

On food security, the threat is far greater than solar farms on agricultural land. Britain imports roughly half its food from many regions now facing worsening droughts, floods and harvest failures driven by climate change which is also significantly degrading our own farmland.

North Sea drilling won’t protect us from that problem. The most urgent food‑security measure available to humankind is rapid decarbonisation to slow the climate disruption that will devastate global agriculture.

We all want food and energy security, but investing in the North Sea just leads us in circles. The permanent solution to fuel and food insecurity is the same one: reducing our reliance on fossil fuels as quickly as possible.