Stop Rosebank — More than just a Bad Deal for the UK
by Kamal Longia | Parents for Future Stroud
September 2025
Maybe you've heard the slogan “Climate Justice is Social Justice”. Maybe not. Maybe you understand exactly what it means when you hear it. Or maybe you find it confusing, abstract, vague.
Countless examples exist of how the climate emergency is driven by corporate interests, and how this all intersects with social justice issues; but let's pick one close to home, and let’s unpack it. Let's look at Rosebank.
Developing Rosebank will be enough to exceed the UK's total carbon budget.
According to analysis by Uplift of the environmental statements provided by Equinor, emissions from Rosebank’s operations alone – not counting the far greater emissions that burning the extracted oil and gas would produce – are likely to reach 5.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide. This would be enough to exceed the share of the UK's carbon budget that’s permissible from oil and gas.
June 19, 2025•Daniel JonesGuro Lysta (WWF Norway)
Rosebank is a Terrible Deal for the UK Economy
Rosebank will do nothing to lower UK energy bills
Oil and gas prices are set on a global market. This means the amount of domestic production has no bearing on how much UK consumers are charged.
Rosebank is not about UK energy security
90% of the fuel that would be extracted from Rosebank is oil, which would most likely be exported overseas. Even the last Conservative government conceded that the development would not boost energy security.
Matthew Taylor
Rosebank is a terrible deal for the UK economy
Thanks to generous tax breaks, The UK would bear more than 80% of the Rosebank’s costs. The UK Treasury could face a net loss of over £250 million; while the field’s owners, Equinor and Ithaca, would earn £1.5 billion in profit.
Because the Norwegian state is a majority owner of Equinor, it’s Norwegian citizens who stand to gain from a Rosebank approval — not the UK. Norway has already amassed a national wealth fund worth $1.8 trillion thanks to oil and gas assets. Rosebank is, in effect, a redistribution of wealth away from the UK public; to one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
In addition, it’s forecasted that only 255 direct jobs would be created in the UK over Rosebank’s lifetime. This is not helped by Equinor’s decision to construct the main offshore vessel for the field in Dubai.
Dan Vevers
As unions have noted, contracts are being “siphoned off overseas”. Not a single design or construction job has yet been created in the UK.
Rosebank will fund a genocide
Preventing the development of Rosebank is inextricably linked to social justice.
Social justice is defined by the United Nations as “an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations.”
The five key principles: equity, access, participation, rights and diversity can be used as tools to examine the impact of projects and policy.
Here in the UK, lower income families and people of colour bear the brunt of health, economic and social challenges brought about by the consequences of climate breakdown such as air pollution, flooding, food insecurity and extreme heat.
Helena Horton
How does this apply to Rosebank?
Ithaca Energy is the minority stakeholder of the field. In turn, Ithaca is majority owned by the Delek Group: a conglomerate that includes Delek Israel — one of the main fuel providers to Israel.
Since 2020, the United Nations has condemned the Delek Group for providing services and utilities to illegal Israeli settlements, and Ithaca Energy is complicit in this provision.
In the past two years alone, Ithaca Energy has paid hundreds of millions in dividends to the Delek Group. These dividends help fund and maintain illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and support the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Projections suggest that Delek Group will receive another £253 million in revenue if Rosebank is developed.
Governments are finally starting to take notice
Equinor is under investigation by the Norwegian Consumer Authority — its partnership with Ithaca Energy is deemed to be in clear breach of a requirement that Norwegian companies ensure their operations and collaborations both respect basic human rights and uphold international law.
On September 3rd, the Scottish Parliament voted for an immediate boycott of Israel, including companies complicit in Israel’s military operations and its occupation of Palestine.
The UK Government is now under pressure to follow suit. This would bring about sanctions on Ithaca Energy for their involvement in Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.
It is vital to block the extraction of oil and gas from the Rosebank field in order to tackle the climate crisis, and focus on a just transition away from fossil fuels. It is equally vital to do so because it will have direct financial impacts on Israel, taking fuel and finances away from the forces behind the Israeli occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people.
Successfully stopping the Rosebank development will not only put a line in the sand that we will allow no more fossil fuel expansion, but it will say loud and clear that we will not fund Israel’s apartheid and genocide in Palestine.
Climate Justice is Social Justice. Stop Rosebank. Defund genocide. Free Palestine.
Take Action
Join the Fight to Stop Rosebank
The main campaign to stop development of the Rosebank field is at the StopCambo website.
Write to your MP (Dr Simon Opher)
Simon Opher has publicly supported the Stop Rosebank campaign. Keep on writing to him to show the constituency he represents is urging him to keep the pressure on.
Write to your local press
Local press outlets include Stroud News & Journal, Stroud Times, Gloucestershire Live. They routinely print well-researched and written letters from the public.
The StopRosebank campaign has produced a really clear guide to writing a piece here: https://stoprosebank.notion.site/local-press-guide
Join Parents for Future
Parents for Future is a national campaign rooted in climate action and targetted at parents with young families: it's their future that is at stake. You can support their campaigning work.
With thanks to SPSC Aberdeen and the Stop Rosebank campaign. This article was written and produced in collaboration with an activist from Stroud now based in Aberdeen.
Kamal Longia is a craft educator with Practical Intelligence in Nailsworth and a volunteer co-ordinator with Parents for Future, the UK's largest parent climate movement.
Parents for Future acts by building a resilient community of caregivers, and family-friendly campaigns rooted in the latest climate science.
A just transition away from fossil-fuel extraction is a key component of their campaign.
Amplify Stroud is supported by Dialect rural writers collective. Dialect offers mentorship, encouragement and self-study courses as well as publishing.
You can find out more at https://www.dialect.org.uk/
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