It came after ministers stressed that while Britain must cut fossil fuels in the long term, domestic output needed to be boosted after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine plunged international oil and gas markets.
However, Greenpeace argues that the Offshore Oil Regulator for the Environment and Decommissioning (Opred) failed in its legal duty to carry out checks on the environmental impact of Jackdaw.
For example, they say that Opred must take into account not only the emissions created by the process of extracting gas from the field, but also the emissions that will be produced by burning this same gas.
In total, they estimate that 284.4 billion cubic feet of gas will be extracted from Jackdaw, as well as 2 million barrels of non-gaseous liquids, resulting in more than 16 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
This is roughly equivalent to Ghana’s annual emissions in 2020, Greenpeace said.
Evans, an oil and gas transition campaigner at Greenpeace, added: “The government knows that burning fossil fuels is driving the climate crisis, yet it is approving a new gas field without adequate climate controls.
“Meanwhile household bills are rising and the government is ignoring common sense solutions such as home insulation, heat pumps and cheap renewable energy.
“We believe this is a stunning breach of the government’s legal obligation, and we will not let it stand.
“Whenever we see the government acting illegally to give the green light to new fossil fuels, we are ready to fight in court.”
It’s a fresh headache for ministers just days after the national ‘net zero’ strategy was successfully challenged in the High Court by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project.
The Government was ordered to explain how various policies will meet the UK’s emissions targets after judges ruled it had failed to do so.
In another legal challenge, Greenpeace is trying to block BP from extracting oil from the Vorlich field and has threatened similar action if the government lets Shell develop an oil field in Cambo.
A spokesman for the campaign group questioned suggestions that such moves could harm the UK’s energy security, pointing to statements from ministers themselves to support this.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has said the UK “doesn’t have a supply problem” and that the energy crisis is a “price problem”.
“We have a lot of gas from very diverse and safe sources, but it’s very expensive,” he tweeted in February.
“Additional production from the North Sea will not materially affect the wholesale price.”