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CAMPAIGNERS hit out at the Westminster government today after its legal representatives claimed in court that the climate crisis is not relevant to the approval of oil permits.
Government lawyers said during a landmark legal case that emissions from burning oil extracted by BP should not be considered and that assessing them would be “impossible.”
Greenpeace is challenging the government in the Court of Session, Scotland’s highest judicial body, over ministers’ decision to grant a permit to BP to extract 30 million barrels of oil from the Vorlich field, east of Aberdeen.
The case is the first ever court challenge to an offshore oil permit and could have significant implications for the proposed Cambo oil permit just months before Glasgow hosts the Cop26 United Nations climate conference in November.
Greenpeace UK head of oil and gas transition Mel Evans condemned the government’s “astonishing” failure to consider the emissions.
She said: “That damage is recognised by energy agencies, banks and even oil companies around the world, so it is ridiculous for the UK government to argue differently.”
