The Shetland Islands are the northernmost region of the United Kingdom
this Scottish sub-arctic archipelago is known for its ancient Heritage breathtaking
Cliffside views and green Rolling Hills an 11 fire festivals per year [Music]
it's known for one other thing too
[Laughter]
Shetland has seen massive economic development for over 40 years due
to its Coastal proximity to multiple oil fields including one of Europe's largest oil terminals
10 percent of shetland's Workforce is linked directly to the oil and gas sector
but things are changing fast
the Shetland Islands have more recently become a leader in renewable energy with some of the
strongest and most consistent wins in the world the island is currently building what will become
the UK's largest onshore wind power site poised to transform both the landscape and economy
foreign the potential renewable wind resources in the UK in general are massive the big oil
and gas industry here the people who work in it they have a lot of the expertise that would be
required to develop not just renewable energy but also some of the other kinds of energy like Tidal
alongside this progress International
oil companies remain adamant on drilling off their Shores
an oil field called rosebank has been proposed off the Shetland Coast by Norwegian oil Titan Ecuador
and that's where tessacon comes in I'm Tessa Khan I'm the executive director of
an organization called uplift in the UK and I'm a climate change and human rights lawyer
out over the town of scalaway which is the ancient capital of Scotland
so if you just look out across the coast we're about 80 miles
from the site that's proposed for the development of the rosebank oil field
the rosebank oil field is the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK it
contains about 300 million barrels of oil which is what would be extracted in the
first phase of development of a field burning all of that oil would result in emissions that
are equivalent to the annual emissions of the 28 poorest countries in the world you
know the number of jobs that it sustains in the long term is not that many jobs especially when
you know you compare it to what is expected to happen in the renewable energy industry
so we're working to stop it from going ahead and the good news is that we've done it before
800 miles south of shedland the Cambo oil field is looming large
with Extinction rebellion demonstrators in London right now in 2021 there was another
really large oil field called the Cambo oil field that was also up for approval
my organization is one of the ones that coordinated the campaign against the Cambo oil
field is the UK government really about to allow a massive new oil and gas field off Shetland as soon
as people started to hear about that they were outraged and so it just became a huge topic of
conversation in the media on the streets you know people were marching against Cambo and ultimately
the level of political opposition across the UK to the development of it was so high that shell
ended up exiting and so did the other partner that it had with camber oil field there's a
reputational liability for shell and ultimately it's one they've decided to walk away from
if you look at literally all of the social change that we've achieved
in our societies every single movement for really transformative change involve people
getting out on the streets and making a lot of noise nothing short of that is going to be
sufficient the history of social change will tell you that we can win that way
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we are ramping up the same Coalition of individuals and organizations and Grassroots
groups that are out opposing rosebank were out opposing campus it's not by any stretch just
uplift it is dozens of organizations more than a hundred thousand people have already signed
a petition against rosebank we want to come out here to reconnect with them and to show
a bit of solidarity anything from a upwards okay um but there could well be more [Music]
we're trying to better understand how people feel about the fact that they are home to this side of
massive new oil and gas extraction and what their concerns are about it and what support
they need to transition into the jobs that we know will be around for decades to come the
first question I wanted to ask everyone how does the oil and gas industry impact life in shetlands
we've got an infrastructure we just wouldn't have if it wasn't for the oil it just all encompasses
yeah yeah so it's difficult fight against that for a lot of people in Shetland and I
don't think they realize we could have is exactly the same from renewable energy and probably more
you know just stop oil I think potentially that message is Troublesome for us I think
so yeah that's really interesting I feel that rosebank is a absolute kick in the teeth and I
just I wish everybody would get up and kick back you know you're in a minority in tetlands and it
can feel really isolating to ask for the things that you're asking for and and raise the hard
questions I think that the oil and gas industry has never been as vulnerable as it is at this
moment I just think this is the most exciting time and the most critical time for us to be
pushing and being ambitious about transitioning away from oil and gas
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we're really conscious of the fact that we don't live here we don't have the really kind
of material interest at stake that a lot of people here do in relation to the oil and gas industry
um but you know to be honest where where we're all on the same side in that we don't
want anyone to lose their jobs we don't want anyone to lose their livelihoods
um I think everyone agrees broadly that we do need to transition away from oil
and gas it's just a question of the pace and what the alternatives are exactly
welcome to what is the first ever public debate hosted by settling news Scotland has some very
ambitious planned targets to reach Net Zero by 2045 and an island Community like Shetland
obviously plays an important role in all that the question whether Rose bank or Campbell should come
on stream will no doubt be a topic of discussion here tonight climate change come in one of the key
Ambitions is to move Shetland from fossil fuel to dependency to Affordable clean energy and that is
a really important word affordable so you know your point is let's stop it tonight or tomorrow
almost yeah but actually it's about having a just transition all right we are currently in a period
of huge Global growth in renewable energy and of destruction of demand for fossil fuels which
has reinforced how we constantly underestimate the pace of this energy transition so the big question
is what would impact on emissions be if all our future demand was made from oil overseas versus
oil from Cambo and rosebank and what I found was that we would use Campbell and rosebank oil then
there would be a net reduction in lifetime emissions of 3.2 million tons of CO2 can you
explain why the production of rosebank and Cambo would result in more oil being important well I
think the point is that you can't prove that if we don't extract the oil from rosebank and Cambo
that somebody else would substitute that absent production with their own production there isn't
just a constant Supply Supply is responsive to demand and demand is responsive to supply
yeah yeah no I I would I would agree with that the truth is that the UK has good reason to move
rapidly away from New oil and gas production we are in the top 10 largest historical emitters
in terms of countries in the world there is an undeniable and Powerful moral imperative for us
to show leadership on this issue so rather than resist change I would really urge that we Embrace
a rare and potentially fleeting opportunity to lead that change instead thank you [Applause]
meeting the people here in Shetland who are really courageous in the stance that
they take in a town that's gone rich off the back of oil and gas I mean it's it's
inspiring and it's an honor to work alongside them
I'm confident that ultimately we will defeat rosebank and Cambo
I know that we've got an amazing movement behind us and there are so many different imperatives
economic climate moral for not developing the field then I'm confident that we'll win
if I didn't believe that you know an individual can make a difference
they wouldn't get out of bed in the morning
I definitely believe that we all have agency and we can all make a difference
the lessons of History are really clear that social movements can unseat people
who have been in power for decades systems that have been entrenched for hundreds of
years that is all vulnerable when we act collectively and that's I think
why in the work that I do as much as possible it is informed by an
understanding of how we are greater than the sum of our parts when we act together
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thank you
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