Claire Coutinho, the Conservative energy secretary, claims that the New Zealand example shows the risks of Labour’s cavalier attitude to the North Sea.
“Labour’s energy policy is a mess,” she said in a tweet. “Their proposal to ban new oil and gas licences was tried in New Zealand. They struggled to keep the lights on and have now had to reverse it. Climate policy can’t come at the cost of our energy security or it will fail.”
Sir Keir Starmer has, however, repeatedly made clear his party’s determination to move on from fossil fuels. The end of oil and gas extraction “has to happen eventually” and the “moment for decisive action is now” he said in a speech last year.
Green groups are pushing Labour to stick to that commitment. Tessa Khan, executive director at Uplift, an environmental group that campaigns to shut down UK oil and gas production, says it is “laughable” to blame New Zealand’s energy problems on the ban on new exploration licences.
“The real lesson for the UK from New Zealand’s experience is the need to accelerate the roll-out of homegrown renewable energy,” Khan says.
“Banning new licensing provides a clear signal to the oil and gas industry that the UK government is serious about the transition and that companies now need to deliver on their long-advertised clean energy promises.”
Others disagree. Russell Borthwick, chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce – the region that lies at the heart of the UK offshore industry – says the UK needs a managed and nuanced transition to low carbon energy.
“The New Zealand experience is a salutary lesson in why it’s so important to devise a better approach to energy policy,” he says.
“Oil and gas will still make up 50pc of our energy requirements by the mid 2030s and will even provide over 20pc of our energy as we reach net zero by 2050.”
The UK should prioritise the North Sea as long as it needs oil and gas, believes Brendan Long, an energy analyst with WH Ireland Capital Markets.
“The resources of the UK can be produced with lower emissions than elsewhere in the world – reflecting the engineering acuity of the UK’s energy industry and their willingness to invest in low carbon strategies.”
New Zealand’s experience suggests much of the UK industry would not survive a ban on new drilling.