The move comes as new research suggests the uncapped bidding process could add up to £38 per year onto the average household energy bill in the UK. [2] From today, the Ofgem energy price cap rises to approximately £1,723 per year for a typical household energy bill – an increase of about £60.

Greenpeace UK’s legal challenge focuses on the Morgan Offshore Wind Project off the coast of Lancashire in the Irish Sea. The previous developers pulled out of the 1.5GW project in January, and the Crown Estate announced in July it was seeking a new developer before the end of this year. But Greenpease understands the ‘streamlined process’ still includes uncapped fees.

Last October, Greenpeace raised the alarm that the Crown Estate is exploiting its monopoly position as legal owner of the entire UK seabed outside of Scotland to charge hefty fees for leases of the seabed. For its fourth leasing round in 2019, the estate moved to an uncapped bidding process that resulted in developers paying much higher option fees. 

This has massively boosted the estate’s profits and the Royal Household’s income, at the expense of the wind power sector and energy bill payers. The estate made over £1 billion in 2024/25 and its profits have skyrocketed, turning the seabed into its most lucrative source of revenue. At the same time, the Crown Estate Commissioner’s pay has risen fivefold from around £385,000 a year in the period 2015-2020 to a staggering £1.9m in 2024/25. 

Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK said: “The Crown Estate is acting like the cat that got the cream. Its role may be to extract profit from the King’s land, but that must not be at the expense of the common good. Accelerating homegrown renewable energy is the aim of this government and the solution to sky-high energy bills, so why is the estate cranking up costs for developers and households? Its latest plan to auction the Morgan site shows it remains intent on milking the seabed for every last penny of profit. The Chancellor should step in and put a cap on these fees to help lower bills and stop this outrageous profiteering”

A report published this week by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, based at the University of Oxford, finds that the option fees paid to the Crown Estate mean that developers need to sell electricity at prices 30-59% higher than they would without the fees. It also finds that if all new offshore wind projects to meet the government’s 2030 Clean Power target passed these additional prices on to bills, it would cost consumers an extra £36-£72 billion between 2035 and 2054. This would add roughly £19 to £38 to household energy bills in 2035, falling to £14 to £29 by 2054.

For comparison, the cut in VAT on electricity bills that Andy Burnham announced on his first day as prime minister, which comes into force today, should reduce bills by about £45 a year.

Despite negotiations with Greenpeace leading to some minor changes, the group alleges in its ‘pre-action protocol’ letter to the Crown Estate that the Morgan auction “suffers from materially the same legal defects” as previous auction rounds, and that this approach represents a “continuation of their short-sighted and irresponsible disregard for the impact that extortionate lease pricing would have on the offshore wind market”.

Greenpeace is concerned the conditions of the Morgan auction could be replicated in future leasing rounds for much larger areas of the seabed. The campaign group is calling for the Chancellor to intervene to ensure the Crown Estate puts a cap on option fees including in the sixth round expected to launch in the first half of next year. The excess profits from the last auction round should be invested in measures to conserve the seabed around the British isles.  

Ends

For interviews, or a copy of the legal letter sent to the Crown Estate, contact press.uk@greenpeace.org / 020 7865 8255  

Notes:

[1] The Crown Estate manages all of the land and property belonging to the King, and provides revenue to the Treasury and the Royal Household. As the legal owner of the entire UK seabed outside of Scotland, it runs auctions to lease blocks of seabed to offshore wind developers, generating income from option fees and leasehold rents.

[2] The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment report, Headwinds: how seabed leasing risks adding costs to clean energy, can be found here.

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A quick recap. Jackdaw was approved by the Conservative government in June 2022, followed by Rosebank in September 2023. Greenpeace challenged both decisions in court, working with Uplift on Rosebank, on the fairly fundamental basis that you can’t decide whether a new oil or gas field is compatible with our climate commitments without considering the emissions created when that oil and gas is actually burned.

The Supreme Court agreed with that principle in the Finch case in June 2024. Following the general election, the Labour government then decided not to defend the previous government’s approvals of Jackdaw and Rosebank in court, and the approvals were subsequently ruled unlawful.

Since then, we’ve had new environmental guidance, a public consultation and another change at the top of government. The consultation has now closed and we’re waiting for the next decision on the future of the fields.

Which brings us to Andy Burnham and Miatta Fahnbulleh.

This will be one of the first big climate and energy tests for the new government, and it comes after another record-breaking summer. Miatta spoke this week about bringing bills down, ending the price volatility that comes with our reliance on fossil fuels and working with civil society to deliver change. The decision on Jackdaw and Rosebank is a pretty immediate opportunity to demonstrate what that means in practice.

Our view hasn’t changed: neither field should go ahead.

For all the industry’s promises about jobs and energy security, it’s worth asking who actually benefits. Jackdaw would create just 27 new direct full-time jobs, according to the developer’s own assessment. And the oil and gas produced won’t be reserved for British households at cheaper prices – it will be sold by private companies on international markets, at international prices.

Rosebank isn’t exactly providing a great advert for the alternative either. Production has already been pushed back after two pieces of drilling equipment, including a safety valve, were accidentally dropped 1,100 metres to the seabed.

So consumers don’t get cheaper energy. Workers don’t get the scale of secure, long-term jobs being promised. And more North Sea drilling doesn’t free us from volatile global fossil fuel prices.

The clearest beneficiary is the oil and gas industry itself.

North Sea workers and communities deserve a much better offer: serious investment in clean industries, secure jobs and a properly managed transition. The brutal and badly managed closure of Britain’s coal industry showed what happens when governments fail to plan properly for workers and communities. We shouldn’t repeat those mistakes.

So after four years of campaigning, court cases, consultations and political change, we’re back to a relatively simple choice: approve more oil and gas fields that take us further in the wrong direction, or start investing properly in what comes next.

We’ll be pushing Andy and Miatta to choose the latter.

Areeba

The post Jackdaw and Rosebank – how did we get here? appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

The UK’s recognition of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine was a significant moment. For many campaigners it will feel too little, too late given the devastation in Gaza. But political positions don’t change on their own. People marched, organised, took direct action and kept pushing the government to go further. There is still much more to do, including ending UK arms sales to Israel.

Closer to home, charges were dropped against eight activists who climbed the Staythorpe gas-fired power station last year – welcome news at a time when the right to peaceful protest remains under pressure.

Nature and energy in focus

Nature was also high on the agenda this week. At the Wild Summit, civil society came together behind a campaign to protect 30% of land and sea, while new Green Party candidate Zack Polanski made a strong case for greater political action to tackle the nature crisis. Unfortunately we did not hear the same level of ambition from the Minister representing Defra.

Meanwhile, new Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh brought environmental organisations and energy businesses together at DESNZ, setting out priorities including bringing bills down and reducing the price volatility associated with fossil fuels.

There’s an immediate opportunity to put those ambitions into practice: Jackdaw and Rosebank.

After years of campaigning, court cases and consultation, the government faces a choice over the future of these two North Sea oil and gas fields. Greenpeace’s position is clear: they shouldn’t go ahead. Instead, we need investment in clean energy alongside a properly managed transition that delivers secure jobs for North Sea workers and communities.

Reasons to keep pushing

There were other signs of debates moving forward too, from growing political attention on AI to new analysis showing how close we could be to positive climate tipping points in clean technologies. Progress rarely happens neatly or all at once. But this week was another reminder that supposedly fixed political positions can change.

The job is to keep pushing them in the right direction.

Areeba

The post Politics, pressure and what comes next appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

Deputy Leader Richard Tice’s speech to the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham was disrupted by an automated banner rising from the stage. 

Greenpeace unfurled the remote control banner on the main stage of Reform’s party conference. It depicts Nigel Farage as ‘Mr Monopoly’ from the famous board game, carrying a sack of cash, with the slogan ‘Collect £5 million, burn the planet’.

Analysis [1] by Desmog indicates that two-thirds of Reform’s funding is from donors with financial interests in fossil fuels, totalling more than £24 million. When recently asked about the link between climate change and this summer’s extreme weather, Mr Tice, Reform UK’s energy spokesman, told people to “enjoy” the hot weather, which was “fantastic” for English wine.[2] 

Amy Cameron, Programme Director for Greenpeace UK, said:

“Tice wants to celebrate this summer’s relentless heatwaves and droughts because they’re improving English sparkling wine. But the only thing being toasted in England is our farmland, and the only way you could miss that is if you’re paid not to notice.

“Reform disguise themselves as champions of ordinary people, but they’re funded by billionaires who profit from keeping us hooked on oil and gas, while the rest of us deal with the catastrophic climate consequences. When this summer’s searing temperatures give way to winter storms, 90% of homes in Tice’s own constituency, Boston and Skegness, will be at risk of flooding. 

“We need to quit the expensive fossil fuels that are wrecking our climate. A more secure, independent energy future is within reach – we just need the politicians in the pocket of the oil and gas lobby to get out of the way.” 

The protest highlights that Reform’s agenda favours the billionaires with fossil fuel interests who fund the party through Reform’s denial of climate change, as the nation is facing drought, heatwaves, wildfires and crop failures, and other countries suffer even more. 

The investigation by the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards[3] into the £5 million ‘gift’ donated to Farage by Christopher Harborne, Reform UK’s biggest donor and a billionaire with interests including cryptocurrency and a jet fuel business, is ongoing. 

Tice is also under investigation by the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards for possible failure to declare an interest, and a company controlled by Tice is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for donations given to Reform.[4]

Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative journalism unit, and Data Desk recently published an investigation revealing that a jet fuel business owned by Harborne is contracted to supply fuel to the US military from refineries taking oil from Russia and Iran.[5] Recent reporting has also revealed evidence of Reform accepting potentially illegal donations from overseas.[6]

Footage and stills are available here.

ENDS

Contact

To arrange interviews on site, or for any other requests, contact Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 07739 963 301

Notes

1. https://www.desmog.com/2026/04/30/reform-uk-nigel-farage-millions-donations-fossil-fuel-interests-climate-science-deniers/ 
2. https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-financial-interests/parliamentary-commissioner-for-standards/complaints-and-investigations/allegations-currently-under-investigation-by-the-commissioner/ 
3. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/17/reform-uk-richard-tice-stop-tackling-climate-crisis-enjoy-heat 
4. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/03/standards-watchdog-investigating-reform-richard-tice 
5. https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2026/07/01/christopher-harborne-jet-fuel-russian-iran-oil-reform-uk/ 
6. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86xj5z7x61o 

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High-resolution images and video footage of the action are available here. 

Activists installed the land art on Sychnant Pass (within Eryri National Park) in Conwy, Wales, where “terrifying” wildfires recently incinerated vast parts of the landscape. Greenpeace used the scorched earth as a canvas to send a message to the new PM: “Our house is on fire Andy”, accompanied by an illustration of Burnham poised to pour oil and gas over the flames.

The 1,120 m² artwork, made using eco-friendly, plastic-free paint, draws on Greta Thunberg’s famous speech in 2019, where she urged world leaders to take action to stop climate change. 

The protest lands at the end of a summer defined by climate extremes. Following successive heatwaves throughout June, July and August, the UK is on track to record its warmest summer on record. Drought conditions now grip almost three-quarters of the country, with over 27 million facing water restrictions. These extreme conditions have proven deadly, with May and June’s heatwaves accounting for an estimated 2,700 excess deaths. 

It also lands on the final day of a public consultation on whether to approve Rosebank, a controversial oil field branded a “carbon bomb” by campaigners and “climate vandalism” by Ed Miliband. Consultation for Jackdaw, another gas field in the North Sea, closed a week before.  

Despite Labour’s stated climate commitments, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has left the door open to approving these licenses under the guise of a “pragmatic” approach to energy security.

“The PM wants to be pragmatic, but there is nothing pragmatic about watching communities be battered by climate chaos while the Prime Minister flirts with expanding the very industry driving it. This summer has been an endless showreel of fossil-fuelled disasters playing out across the country. As the Conwy community reels from their own, we’re urging Andy to see through the self-serving promises of Big Oil and take an honest look at the real world consequences of more North Sea drilling.

“More drilling means more heatwaves, more droughts, more wildfires, and more suffering for the communities Burnham represents. The climate crisis is already hitting working people hardest — firefighters on the front line, bus drivers exposed to inhumane conditions, nurses collapsing on the job. 

“Does the Prime Minister really want to stand with the oil companies making billions, rather than the millions already paying the price? Our message is simple: be brave – say no.”

The environmental and moral consequences of more drilling in the North Sea are significant. Estimates show that the Rosebank project would generate a total of 254 million tonnes of CO₂ over its lifetime – equivalent to nearly 70% of the UK’s entire annual emissions in 2024. 

Oxfam research suggests that if both the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields are approved, their combined lifetime emissions would contribute to an estimated 65,495 excess heat deaths globally – equivalent to wiping out the entire population of Clacton-on-Sea.

Evidence also shows that approving Rosebank would not lower energy bills, nor meaningfully impact the UK’s energy security – with 80% of Rosebank’s oil reserves destined for export and all of it sold at global market prices. The government’s own energy factsheet confirms this, saying: “We are price-takers, not price-makers.”

ENDS

Contact: 

Molly Robson, Press Officer at Greenpeace UK

press@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255 

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“Any watering down of this policy would be a wrong turn for drivers, energy security, our climate and the economy. Electric vehicles are way cheaper to run than petrol and diesel cars, they don’t need foreign oil and the market is booming worldwide. Both the Iran war and this summer’s extreme weather have shown once again why we’re better off cutting our dependence on fossil fuels. This mandate is one of the most powerful policies we have to bring down planet-heating emissions, which is the only way to stop more deadly heatwaves in future. Burnham can’t fulfil his promise of tackling the cost of living crisis and reindustrialising Britain without the green economy. So why put on the brakes now?”

ENDS

Contact: Greenpeace UK press team on 020 7865 8255 and press.uk@greenpeace.org

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Russia is already the world’s leading nitrogen fertiliser exporter but analysis of official trade data [1] by Unearthed confirmed that Russian companies earned an estimated additional £5m a day from urea between March and May this year. This was during Iran’s initial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait normally handles a third of global seaborne fertiliser trade and 20% of natural gas shipments, needed to make nitrogen fertilisers such as urea. It is the key export route for major producers in the Gulf. Russia’s Baltic export routes are largely unaffected by the closure of the strait, allowing its producers to cash in as the price of urea – the world’s most widely used nitrogen fertiliser – almost doubled between late February and late April.

While Russia’s energy sector and many other parts of its economy have been subjected to price caps and sanctions since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2022, fertiliser exports have continued.

The UK imported around 33,900 tonnes of Russian urea between March and May, generating an estimated £8 million in additional revenues. And the EU’s imports generated around £11.5m. [2]

European governments have aimed to reduce their farmers’ reliance on Russian and Belarussian fertiliser through introducing tariffs. Last year the EU introduced staged tariffs, rising every year until 2028, aiming to reduce dependence on Russian and Belarussian fertiliser. The UK, whose initial 2022 tariffs had levied 35% on Russian fertiliser but excluded nitrogen products such as urea, closed that gap in July 2025.

Almost half of the estimated windfall came from the United States. US imports of Russian urea reached record levels during the early months of the conflict, generating an estimated £226 million in additional revenues for Russian producers.

The price shock has also intensified fears over global food security and rising food prices. The United Nations has warned that rising fuel, fertiliser and food costs could push millions more people into hunger, with African countries likely to be hit hardest.

Elena Polisano, Co Head of Biodiversity campaigns at Greenpeace UK, said:
“This crisis shows how dangerously exposed our food system is to war, volatile gas prices and fossil fuel-based fertilisers. Farmers are already battling extreme weather caused by climate change. This summer’s extreme heat and drought have damaged harvests, and now global conflict is driving up farm costs too.

“To make farming more resilient to future shocks, strengthen the UK’s long-term food security and allow wildlife to recover, the UK government needs to provide proper funding and support for farmers to reduce fertiliser and pesticide use over time and shift to nature-friendly farming.”

Nitrogen fertilisers remain central to global food production, but campaigners say farming must become less dependent on them through nature friendly farming measures including cover crops, crop rotations, nitrogen-fixing plants and more efficient nutrient use.

ENDS

Notes to Editors: 

[1] Unearthed compared average monthly urea prices during March, April and May 2026 with the average February price, before multiplying the difference by Russia’s estimated monthly export volumes. The analysis used Bloomberg Green Markets pricing data for urea at Baltic ports and import data from Russia’s trading partners provided by Trade Data Monitor, based on imports reported by Russia’s trading partners.

Russia exported at least 2.48 million tonnes of urea during the three-month period. The estimated £500 million represents additional revenue, not profit, and does not account for changes in production or transport costs.

A full briefing and methodology is available on request. 

[2] European governments have aimed to reduce their farmers’ reliance on Russian and Belarussian fertiliser through introducing tariffs. Last year the EU introduced staged tariffs, rising every year to reach €430 per tonne by 2028. to reduce dependence on Russian and Belarussian fertiliser. The UK, whose initial 2022 tariffs on Russian fertiliser had excluded nitrogen products such as urea, closed that gap in July 2025, and will climb to 35% from 2027. 

UK imports of Russian urea have fallen significantly since the invasion of Ukraine, but the UK still imported 33,900 tonnes of Russian urea during March-May 2026, producing an estimated £8m in additional revenues for Russian producers. 

However, Russia’s increasing exports of fertilisers to other countries such as Brazil, India and the US have made up for decreasing exports to the EU and UK. In fact, Russia has placed limits on the volume of fertilisers that can be exported, to protect domestic supply.

The post Iran war boosted Russian fertiliser revenues by over £5m a day appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

The stunt highlights what the organisation described as the “obscene” profits being made by one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies while communities across the globe suffer the escalating impacts of climate change.

Shell today reported almost $10 billion ($9.84 billion or £7.4 billion)  in profit for the second quarter of 2026 alone.

Images from today’s action are available here.

Greenpeace analysis shows the scale of those profits:

• Shell made the equivalent of an average UK worker’s annual salary in profit every 37 seconds.
• An average UK worker would need to work for around 210,000 years – or 5,300 full working lifetimes – to earn what Shell made in just three months.
• Shell’s Q2 profits alone could have funded around 4.7 GW of new onshore wind capacity – enough to generate electricity for around 5.8 million UK homes.
• The fossil fuel giant’s Q2 earnings could cover the annual energy bills of nearly 4.5 million UK households – more than every household in London, based on the current Ofgem price cap of £1,663 a year for a typical direct debit household.
• Someone earning over £9,900 every day since the birth of Jesus still wouldn’t have earned as much as Shell made in profit in the last three months alone.

Responding to Shell’s bumper second-quarter profits, Greenpeace political campaigner Rudy Schulkind said:

“We’re running out of words to describe the obscenity of these numbers. As these figures land, Europe is engulfed by apocalyptic wildfires, communities across Asia are reeling from devastating floods, and the UK battles through drought and yet more dangerous heat. 

These aren’t anomalies; they’re the defining story of the fossil fuel age: Shell takes the profits, and the rest of us pick up the catastrophic bill.

“There is nothing to celebrate about a business model that generates billions for shareholders while families lose their homes, farmers’ crops fail, public services buckle and future generations inherit an increasingly unstable climate. Let’s be clear: these profits are built on a business model that is upending lives across the world.”

The protest comes as the Northern Hemisphere experiences another summer of destructive climate extremes. Across Europe, North Africa and beyond, communities have endured deadly heatwaves, catastrophic wildfires, prolonged drought and devastating floods.

In the UK, record-breaking temperatures this summer are estimated to have contributed to around 2,700 excess deaths, while prolonged dry conditions have left half of England officially in ‘exceptionally serious’ drought. Since mid-July, wildfires have swept across France, Spain and Portugal, forcing more than 300,000 people to evacuate.

Scientists have concluded that the extreme temperatures experienced across the UK and Europe this summer would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. Despite this, the oil and gas industry continues to lobby the Burnham government to approve new North Sea oil and gas developments, including the controversial Rosebank and Jackdaw fields.

Schulkind added:

“Andy Burnham’s Labour government has a choice. It can continue shielding the extraordinary profits of oil and gas giants, or it can make polluters pay by strengthening oil and gas taxation and using the revenue to help households with the cost of living, strengthen our resilience against extreme weather, and supercharge the transition to clean, affordable energy. A government that claims to be on the side of working people cannot credibly do both.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

How each figure was calculated (all at £7.4 billion):

• Shell earns an average UK annual salary every 37 seconds.
  Based on Shell’s reported Q2 2026 profit of £7.4 billion over a 91-day quarter (7,862,400 seconds), the company earned approximately £934 in profit every second. Using an average UK full-time annual salary of £35,000, this equates to the average worker’s annual salary every 37.5 seconds, rounded to 37 seconds.
• 210,000 years / 5,300 working lifetimes.
  Based on an average UK full-time annual salary of £35,000, it would take an average worker approximately 211,428 years to earn £7.4 billion, rounded to 210,000 years. Assuming a 40-year working career, this is equivalent to approximately 5,286 working lifetimes, rounded to 5,300 lifetimes.
• Enough to generate electricity for 5.8 million homes:
  Using Arup’s central capital expenditure estimate of £1,588 per kW for UK onshore wind (DESNZ, July 2025), £7.4 billion could fund approximately 4.66GW of new onshore wind capacity. Applying Arup’s central 38.1% load factor, this would generate around 15.6TWh of electricity annually. Based on the DESNZ/Ofgem medium annual household electricity consumption of 2,700kWh, this is enough to power approximately 5.77 million UK homes, rounded to 5.8 million.
• Enough to cover the annual energy bills of nearly 4.5 million households: Using Ofgem’s energy price cap for 1 July–30 September 2026 of £1,663 per year for a typical dual-fuel direct debit household, £7.4 billion would cover the annual energy bills of approximately 4,449,789 households, rounded to nearly 4.5 million households. For comparison, this is more than the total number of households in London.
• £9,900 every day since the birth of Jesus. Someone earning £9,900 every day from the birth of Jesus until today (calculated using 2,026 years × 365.25 days) would have earned approximately £7.33 billion – still around £73 million less than Shell’s £7.4 billion profit in Q2 2026 alone. This figure is converted from the original dollar comparison using an exchange rate of US$1.334 to £1 and rounded down to ensure the comparison remains accurate.

The post Shell pockets equivalent of an average UK annual salary ‘every 37 seconds’ as Greenpeace targets oil giant over ‘shameful’ Q2 profits appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

The findings come as millions of households face new restrictions on their water use following a prolonged spell of hot and dry weather. 

The most recent Ofwat data shows that water companies are still wasting a staggering 2.87 billion litres of water every day through leaky pipes, enough to fill 1,150 Olympic-sized swimming pools. A fifth of all the water pumped into the network is lost in this way. By comparison, a nationwide hosepipe ban is estimated to save about 4% of the water distributed (577 million litres per day) – an amount five times smaller than that wasted through leaks.

Following a very dry and hot end of June and start of July, all regions in England are experiencing drier-than-average soils, with river flows and groundwater levels declining at nearly all sites and reservoir storage below the long-term average for this time of year. [1] 

The water industry, which was privatised in the 1980s, has faced widespread criticism for prioritising shareholders’ dividends over investing in critical infrastructure. While leakage has fallen in recent years, the scale of the waste remains huge and the infrastructure inadequate. 

Aside from the well-known issue of underinvestment in sewage treatment, not a single major new reservoir has been built in England and Wales over the last 30 years, although several projects are now planned. Until recently, the rate of replacement of old water pipes – where many of the leaks occur – meant that it would take 700 years to replace the entire network, according to the National Audit Office. [2] 

Meanwhile, the Climate Change Committee has warned that climate change will make droughts more frequent, intense and widespread, with England facing a potential water-supply shortfall of more than five billion litres a day by the mid-2050s. [3] 

Greenpeace UK is calling on the government to crack down on failing water companies once and for all, and set out how it plans to climate-proof the sector in its upcoming Water Bill.

Commenting on the findings, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said:

“Of course people should use water carefully during prolonged hot and dry weather. But it’s galling to be told to put away the hose while water companies are losing nearly three billion litres every day through leaks. Fossil-fuelled climate change is making severe droughts more frequent and more dangerous, so ministers must not treat water security as tomorrow’s problem. The incoming Burnham government must force water companies to repair and renew the network and tackle the fossil-fuel pollution driving extreme heat and drought. Without this, people and nature will ultimately pay the price, not the company shareholders and execs.”

Notes to editors:

1. Environment Agency weekly update
2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-24/it-will-take-700-years-to-replace-uk-water-grid-at-current-pace  
3. From the National Framework for Water Resources 2025

Methodology

Greenpeace UK researchers analysed the latest available Ofwat figures, published in January 2026. The determination forecast for water distribution by 17 water firms across England and Wales in 2024-25 is 14,428 million litres per day. The overall amount of water leaked over the same period is 2,869 million litres per day. According to industry research quoted by the Environment Agency, hosepipe bans and temporary use bans can reduce the amount of water companies put in their distribution network by 3 to 5%, so our researchers used the mean, 4%, for their calculations. 4% of 14,428 million is 577 million litres per day, meaning the water lost to leaks is about five times what a hosepipe ban would save. 

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On page 88 of the Environmental Impact Assessment, Adura states:

“The 300 jobs on Shearwater are comprised of the current 273 jobs for operating the Shearwater host installation, plus 27 new Full Time Equivalent (FTE) roles required for the Jackdaw-specific activities.”

This means the project would create just 27 new full-time equivalent jobs, with the remaining roles already existing as part of the Shearwater platform’s operations. To put that into context, that’s not enough people to fill the top deck of a double-decker bus and fewer than the players who were on the field during the England vs Argentina World Cup semifinal.

The finding contradicts years of political and industry messaging used to justify approval of new oil and gas developments on employment grounds.

Conservative Shadow Scottish Secretary Andrew Bowie has described Jackdaw as a project that would “help shape the lives of thousands of North Sea workers for years to come”, adding that it would “create 3,500 jobs during construction, with 880 high-quality, well-paid jobs sustained throughout production.” However, Adura’s own assessment indicates that the number of genuinely new permanent jobs associated with Jackdaw specifically is only 27.

Campaigners say the disclosure further weakens the case for approving new fossil fuel developments on employment grounds.

Angharad Hopkinson, political campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said:

Adura has scored an own goal with its Environmental Impact Assessment. After years of claims that projects like Jackdaw are essential for protecting jobs, the company’s own figures show the project won’t create enough full-time roles to fill the top deck of a London bus.

“It’s never been workers who stand to gain most from projects like Jackdaw – it’s oil and gas companies and their shareholders. After a record-breaking summer of extreme heat driven largely by fossil fuels, this isn’t the time for Andy Burnham to cave in to the demands of the polluters’ lobby. If he’s looking for job creation, the clean economy is where he’ll find it.

ENDS

Contact: Greenpeace UK press team at press.uk@greenpeace.org and on 020 7865 8255

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