Burnham Defends North Sea Drilling as UK Wildfires Rage
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- Andy Burnham acknowledged climate change as the cause of hundreds of UK wildfires, his first such statement as prime minister after 50 environmental groups criticised him in a letter for failing to mention it following a Cobra meeting earlier in the week.
- On the same day, the UK government launched a consultation on cutting the EV sales target from 80% to as little as 50% by 2030, which the ECIU warns could reduce electric car sales by 5.8 million vehicles and add millions of tonnes of CO2 annually.
- Burnham defended his "pragmatic" approach to North Sea oil and gas extraction ahead of a government decision on the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields, with the Rosebank consultation closing Monday and Greenpeace calling approval a "Rubicon that he must not cross."
- The UK recorded its hottest day of the year (the fifth hottest ever) after five heatwaves this summer; 19 homes were destroyed, 200 hectares burned, and dozens of people hospitalized in West Midlands grassfires that may have been worsened by drought.
- The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) lobbied for the EV mandate review, arguing the targets were "conceived under vastly different conditions" and risk job losses or UK factory closures, while the Climate Change Committee has called vehicle electrification the single biggest near-term emissions cut.
- Greenpeace UK invoked both the Iran war and the summer's extreme weather to argue cutting fossil fuel dependence is more urgent, urging Burnham not to weaken the zero-emission vehicle mandate or approve new North Sea drilling.
Why it matters: The consultation closes 23 October and the Rosebank decision is days away, putting the UK's two biggest near-term climate policies — its EV mandate and new North Sea drilling — in play right as the prime minister publicly connects extreme weather to climate change. Carmakers who want the EV rules softened face climate analysts who warn the 50% scenario would slash 5.8 million EV sales and make the 2035 petrol ban effectively unreachable.
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