Scotland's supreme civil court has ruled that approval for the UK's North Sea Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields was unlawful, and has quashed consent for their development.
The consent granted for the fields was unlawful because it did not take into account the scope 3 emissions — those that would be caused by burning the fields' oil and gas — the Scottish Court of Sessions ruled today. It ruled that the UK government can take a new decision on the fields, "this time taking into account downstream emissions."
Norwegian state-controlled Equinor has an 80pc stake in Rosebank and London-listed Ithaca holds the remaining 20pc. Shell is developing Jackdaw. The companies would have to submit new environmental impact assessments to the UK government for approval, taking into account scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions typically make up between 85pc and 95pc of an oil and gas company's total emissions.
Environmental groups Greenpeace and Uplift first separately applied for a judicial review of the government's decision on Rosebank in December 2023, although the cases were heard together. Greenpeace in July 2022 separately filed a legal challenge against the permitting of the Jackdaw field.
All parties to the case agreed that the approvals had been unlawful, but the court heard differing opinions on how to resolve this. A judicial review in the UK is a challenge to the way a decision has been made by a public body, focusing on the procedures followed rather than the conclusion reached.
The developers may continue with Rosebank and Jackdaw, but cannot extract any oil or gas from the fields, today's ruling stated.
Equinor welcomed the ruling, saying it allows it to "continue with progressing the Rosebank project while we await new consents". The company said it would "work closely" with the UK government and submit a "downstream end-user combustion emissions… assessment in full compliance with the government's new environmental guidance" when it is ready.
"Today's ruling rightly allows work to progress on this nationally important energy project while new consents are sought," Shell said in reference to Jackdaw.
Judge Lord Ericht said today that "the private interest of members of the public in climate change outweigh the private interest of the developers".
Environmental campaigners have had success in courts lately, largely underpinned by a landmark judgment made by the UK Supreme Court in June 2024. The court ruled that Surrey County Council's decision to permit an oil development was "unlawful because the end use atmospheric emissions from burning the extracted oil were not assessed as part of the environmental impact assessment".
The UK's Labour government, which took power just days after that ruling, said the outcome meant "end use emissions from the burning of extracted hydrocarbons need to be assessed".
The government said in August that it would not challenge judicial reviews brought against development consent granted to Jackdaw and Rosebank. The hearing took place in mid-November. The UK government is expecting to introduce new environmental guidance for oil and gas firms in the spring. It has halted all assessments of environmental statements related to oil and gas extraction and storage activities until this is in place.
The then-Conservative UK government greenlit Rosebank in September 2023 and Jackdaw in June 2022.
