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      New cabinet minister denied climate change in string of tweets

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      Boris Johnson’s new international trade secretary has been accused of climate emergency denial after a series of tweets came to light in which she insisted the world was not getting hotter and dismissed global warming campaigners as “fanatics”.In the messages, sent between 2010 and 2012, Anne-Marie Trevelyan approvingly quoted the work of groups which have rejected the mainstream scientific consensus that human activity is driving climate change.And she stated that one such group had provided “clear evidence that the ice caps aren’t melting after all, to counter those gloom-mongers and global warming fanatics”.Labour condemned the Berwick MP’s elevation to the cabinet just weeks ahead of the COP26 UN conference being chaired by Boris Johnson in Glasgow, at which the prime minister is hoping to persuade countries from around the world to sign up to ambitious carbon-cutting targets.Ms Trevelyan was promoted to the International trade brief on Wednesday from a more junior role in the business department where she had responsibility for clean growth.Her controversial comments on climate change date back to before she entered parliament in 2015, but after she had fought the previous general election as a Tory candidateIn one tweet, backing a campaign against wind farms in 2012, she said: “We aren’t getting hotter, global warming isn’t actually happening.”And in another message she praised as “intelligent” an article about the “global warming myth” by the Climate Realists group, who argue that temperature rises cannot be blamed on manmade carbon emissions.In 2011, she gave her support to outspoken climate emergency denier Lord Lawson for “hitting back” at then energy secretary Chris Huhne’s “ideological obsession with manmade climate change”.Shadow international development secretary Emily Thornberry highlighted the string of messages, with the comment: “At least the last Trade Secretary only hired climate change deniers…”She was referring to Ms Trevelyan’s predecessor Liz Truss, who hired former Australian PM and climate sceptic Tony Abbott as a UK trade envoy.Ms Trevelyan later insisted she was “proud” of the government’s action on climate change and will make it “a priority” in her new job.“This government is united in achieving our ambitious climate target goals,” said the international trade secretary.“Having worked directly on COP26, I am proud of what we have already done to tackle climate change and embrace a greener and cleaner future, including being the first major economy to legislate for a Net Zero target by 2050 and launching a bold plan for the UK’s world-leading hydrogen economy.“As International Trade Secretary, climate change and protecting the environment will remain a priority as I negotiate ambitious trade deals around the world.”Mr Johnson’s reshuffle continued into a second day on Thursday, with the prime minister finalising non-cabinet jobs and promoting a raft of female Conservative rising stars ahead of the first meeting of the new cabinet at 10 Downing Street on Friday.Former biomedical scientist Maggie Throup was made vaccines minister, following Nadhim Zahawi’s appointment yesterday as education secretary.Lucy Frazer and Helen Whately moved to the Treasury as financial secretary and exchequer secretary, while barrister Victoria Atkins was promoted to minister of state at the Ministry of Justice.Gillian Keegan was promoted to minister of state rank at the Department of Health, while Chloe Smith moved from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Work and Pensions.Other appointments included Alex Chalk as Solicitor General and Conor Burns minister of state at the Northern Ireland Office. Robin Walker was moved from Northern Ireland to education. Justin Tomlinson left the Department for Work and Pensions to become Tory Party deputy chair.After sacking three cabinet ministers on Wednesday, Mr Boris also ejected a raft of long-serving ministers of lower rank.Downing Street confirmed that Nick Gibb was leaving the Department for Education after 10 years as a schools minister. In a clear indication he had been sacked, the former minister said he was “sad” not to keep the post.Also ousted were former culture secretary John Whittingdale, who had been a fierce critic of the BBC licence fee as media minister, and Jesse Norman, who leaves the Treasury after five years in government. Fears that Mr Johnson’s new culture secretary Nadine Dorries intends to declare war on the BBC were stoked by a cabinet colleague, who said she would take on “crackpot” programmes funded by the licence fee-payer.Defence secretary Ben Wallace suggested that Ms Dorries – a best-selling author of romantic fiction – was more in tune with the tastes of the British public than BBC executives.“What’s great about Nadine Dorries is that she produces culture that people buy and actually want to see, rather than some of the more crackpot schemes we’ve seen being funded in the past by taxpayers money,” Mr Wallace told Sky News.“I think she’ll bring realism to it.” More

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      Anger from Labour activists after Green New Deal motion blocked

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      Labour climate campaigners have accused the party leadership of a “stitch-up” after their motion on a Green New Deal was blocked from debate at this month’s annual conference.The motion, submitted by 21 constituency parties and backed by the left-leaning Momentum movement, was rejected by the conference arrangements committee days ahead of the Brighton gathering, when Keir Starmer is expected to clash with supporters of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.Corbyn’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell told The Independent that the move would “demobilise and demotivate a large section of our membership”, particularly among younger voters, at a time when the party roll has been shrinking.But party sources insisted the Green New Deal remains a Labour commitment. With many motions submitted by members and affiliates, the issue will be on the priorities ballot when the final subjects for debate at conference are decided. Labour for a Green New Deal blamed party staff for keeping the Green Jobs Revolution motion off the agenda, while other less radical proposals were allowed to go through.Momentum co-chairs Gaya Sriskanthan and Andrew Scattergood said there was no doubt that responsibility lay with Starmer and his new general secretary David Evans, and called for a demonstration in protest on the first day of the conference on 25 September.It is understood that the Labour for a Green New Deal motion was opposed on the grounds that it was too wide-ranging, as it took in commitments from Corbyn’s 2019 manifesto including the nationalisation of key industries like energy and rail as well as the creation of a National Care Service and free broadband.LGND co-founder Chris Saltmarsh said: “By interfering to block this motion, the CAC and party staff have stifled the will of members.“It makes a mockery of party democracy and further exacerbates unnecessary division between the leadership and the Labour membership. It also sends entirely the wrong message to voters: that Keir Starmer’s Labour is uninterested in the bold solutions we need to tackle the climate crisis.“This anti-democratic decision must be overturned now.”In a joint statement, Ms Sriskanthan and Mr Scattergood denounced the decision as “a disgraceful rejection of our responsibility to each other, to younger generations and to the rest of the world”.“Tackling climate change requires systematic transformation, and our policies in this area cannot be siloed into isolated, ineffective parts,” they said.“There can be no doubt this was a stitch-up to keep progressive policy off the agenda.“While the right had a majority at today’s meeting of the committee, the recommendation to remove the Green New Deal motion came directly from Labour Party staff. “Responsibility lies with David Evans and with Keir Starmer, who pledged in his leadership election campaign to put the Green New Deal at the heart of everything we do.“It is now well known in the Labour Party that the pledges Starmer stood on are worthless, and it will soon be known to an entire generation of people who are looking to political leaders to stand up and take action against climate change. Without the support of these people, Labour will never again get into government.” More

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      Lords criticised for inviting ‘fringe’ climate denial group to give evidence in parliament

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      A House of Lords committee has been criticised for inviting a “fringe” group which campaigns against climate action to give evidence on carbon policy.The Global Warming Policy Foundation was invited by peers to give evidence to an inquiry on reaching net zero and appeared before them on Tuesday.But environmental groups questioned why the committee would “waste their valuable time” hearing from the organisation, which they said had been “so widely and repeatedly found to be wrong”.The GWPF has previously been admonished by the Charity Committee for breaking rules on impartiality and has been described as the country’s most prominent source of climate-change denial. The organisation falsely claims that there is no scientific consensus on climate change, describing the facts as “contested”. It campaigns against renewable energy and says it is “deeply concerned about the costs” of climate action.It says it does not officially take a view on climate climate science and that its members “cover a broad range of different views, from the IPCC position through agnosticism to outright scepticism”.The House of Lords industry and regulators committee invited John Constable, the organisation’s energy editor, to give evidence on net zero and the energy market at a session on Tuesday afternoon.Mr Constable, who has claimed environmentalism is “in a state of physical and moral collapse”, argues against wind power because he says it is not “affordable and proportional to the risk” from climate change.The GWPF does not disclose its funders but says it is “overwhelmingly by voluntary donations from a number of private individuals and charitable trusts”. It says it rejects donations from the energy industry, though it is not possible to verify this. Mr Constable told the peers on Tuesday: “In our view the climate policies don’t pass any of these tests… the abatement cost is extremely high in relation to the threat as far as we understand it, and they are unaffordable in themselves and therefore unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.”Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace UK said: “From the plummeting cost of renewables to the science behind the climate crises, the Global Warming Policy Foundation’s views have been so widely and repeatedly found to be wrong that you really have to question why the Lords would waste their valuable time on them. “It’s an organisation on the far fringes, who have nothing constructive to say to today’s young people worried about the climate crisis and do very little but attempt to derail much needed action. “Parliament voted unanimously for our net zero target two years ago, and there are a huge array of voices who might provide the Lords with more worthwhile guidance on how we meet the challenge.”A spokesperson for the committee said: “The Committee are looking at a number of policy and regulatory impacts of the move to net zero. To do that effectively it will take evidence from witnesses with a broad range of views. The Committee will weigh up all the evidence it receives before making any recommendations.”The UN climate watchdog the IPCC last month issued a “code red” warning demanding immediate climate action. Global surface temperatures are over 1 C higher between 2011-2020 the between 1850 and 1900, while the past five years have been the hottest on record since 1850. The recent rate of sea level rise has nearly tripled compared to 1901 – 1971 and is is “virtually certain” that hot extremes including heatwaves have been more intensive since the 1950s. More

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      UK secretly dropped climate promises for trade deal with Australia, leaked emails show

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      The British government secretly dropped a series of climate pledges in order to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, leaked emails appear to show.Liz Truss, the trade secretary, and Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, decided to “drop both of the climate asks” from the text of the UK-Australia agreement in order to get it “over the line”, according to the email from a senior official.A binding section that referenced the “Paris Agreement temperature goals” was scrubbed from the accord after pressure from the southern Hemipshere country’s government – which has a notoriously weak record on climate action. The embarrassing revelation comes just weeks before the government is due to host a landmark UN climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow – where it is supposed to ask countries to make stronger commitments to cutting emissions. Just last month Boris Johnson claimed any trade deal with Australia would, “include a chapter on trade and environment which not only reaffirms commitments to multilateral environmental agreements, including the Paris Agreement but also commits both parties to collaborate on climate and environmental issues”.The prime minister claimed that “more trade will not come at the expense of the environment”. In June the two countries reached an “agreement in principle” to cut tariffs and quotas.John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the government’s actions would signal the start of a “race to the bottom” and accused Boris Johnson of having lied about the issue. “The UK government pledged to embed the environment at the very heart of trade, including supporting the Paris Agreement on climate and zero deforestation in supply chains,” Mr Sauven said.“Signing an Australian trade deal with action on climate temperature commitments secretly removed is the polar opposite of everything Boris Johnson publicly pledged and rips the heart out of what the agreement stands for.”The Greenpeace chief added: “It will be a race to the bottom, impacting on clean tech sectors and farmers’ livelihoods. There should be a moratorium on trade deals with countries like Australia until they improve on their weak climate targets and end deforestation. At the moment the public and parliament are being duped by the Prime Minister into thinking this deal is great for Britain when in reality nothing could be further from the truth.“What’s also clear is that the government’s promise of public consultation and updates on the progress of the negotiations are completely inadequate. It’s time parliament demanded proper scrutiny for trade deals.”Brexiteers in the government like trade secretary Ms Truss have been desparate to secure trade deals with other countries to try and prove that leaving the EU has benefits. But experts say the drive for agreements at any cost has put the UK in a weak negotiating position.The email, first reported by Sky News, was sent last month and details internal discussions between Ms Truss, Mr Kwarteng and Brexit minister Lord Frost It originates from a deputy director in the government’s the trade secretariat, which is part of the Cabinet Office.The email says: “As flagged in my note to Lord Frost, the Business and Trade Secretaries were due to speak yesterday. “We haven’t yet seen the formal read out, but we understand the conversation took place and the Business Secretary has agreed that, in order to get the Australia FTA over the line, DIT can drop both of the climate asks (ie on precedence of Multilateral Environmental Agreements over FTA provisions and a reference to Paris Agreement temperature goals.)”The change makes the deal weaker than the Brexit agreement with the EU and other FTAs negotiated by the UK. The Paris deal requires countries to set goals in order to limit global warming to well below 2C, preferably to 1.5C. Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison has refused to commit to taking his country to net zero by 2050, even after the UN’s most recent “code red” warning. Instead, Australia’s government is holding to an existing pledge of cutting carbon emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Australia is the second-largest exporter of coal in the world and has a high per capita carbon footprint, according to European Commission data. Of 176 new coal projects across the world, 79 of them are in Australia, according to Fitch.Caroline Lucas, member of the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission and a Green Party MP said: “Weeks before the UK is due to host an international summit to secure climate action, this revelation paints a bleak picture of both the government’s priorities and their abysmal negotiating power post-Brexit.”Only yesterday, the government showed they are willing to break any promise they make to the public and their readiness to compromise on the existential challenge of our time raises serious concerns on what else might be on the table in ongoing trade negotiations.”Jean Blaylock, a trade campaigner at the group Global Justice Now, said the episode was “typical of the government’s approach to trade deals”. “Climate commitments will always come second to a free trade arrangement, regardless of the consequences for the planet,” she said. “Even deals that contain specific climate commitments often sign us up to secretive corporate courts that allow big polluters to sue governments for taking climate action.“The kinds of trade deals that we are pursuing are completely incompatible with decarbonisation. Tweaking the text of trade deals is not enough. We need to fundamentally reshape our system of global trade to save us from climate catastrophe.”Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow business secretary, said: the revelation “underscores yet again that this greenwashing government cannot be trusted on climate”. “With COP26 round the corner, the Government should be flexing every political muscle to ensure the summit is a success,” he said.“Australia is one of the world’s biggest polluters and key to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. But rather than piling pressure on them, the Government has simply rolled over.“This government is pursuing trade deals at the expense of our farmers and now our climate targets. This is simply a massive betrayal of our country and our planet.”A Government spokesperson said: “Our ambitious trade deal with Australia will include a substantive article on climate change which reaffirms both parties’ commitments to The Paris Agreement and achieving its goals, including limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Any suggestion the deal won’t sign up to these vital commitments is completely untrue.””The UK’s climate change and environment policies are some of the most ambitious in the world, reflecting our commitment as the first major economy to pass new laws for net zero emissions by 2050.” More

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      Government says polluters can dump raw sewage into rivers as Brexit disrupts water treatment

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      The government has given polluters the green light to dump raw sewage into rivers and the sea as Brexit and Covid disrupt normal water treatment. Some businesses have found it more difficult to get hold of water treatment chemicals because of supply chain disruption at ports blamed primarily on Britain’s departure from the EU.The Environment Agency this week said companies struggling to get hold of the treatment chemicals would be allowed to “discharge effluent without meeting the conditions” of their permits, which normally require water to be treated.Rolling shortages have hit different parts of the UK economy since the government took the country out of EU’s customs union and single market – imposing new border bureaucracy on importers and exporters.The ending of free movement and the creation of new red tape on doing business with Britain’s largest trading partner has also exacerbated a shortage of lorry drivers, with the logistical nightmare compounded by coronavirus. Water treatment is the latest sector to be hit, following concerns last week about a blood tube shortage hitting the NHS and reports of intermittent shortages in supermarkets across the country.In a statement released on Monday, the Environment Agency said: “Normally, you need a permit under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 to discharge treated effluent from a waste water treatment works (WwTW) to surface water or groundwater. Permits contain conditions that control the quality of the effluent you can discharge.”You may not be able to comply with your permit if you cannot get the chemicals you use to treat the effluent you discharge because of the UK’s new relationship with the EU, coronavirus (COVID-19), [or] other unavoidable supply chain failures, for example the failure of a treatment chemical supplier.”If you follow the conditions in this regulatory position statement (RPS) you can discharge effluent without meeting the conditions in your permit. You must get written agreement from your Environment Agency water company account manager before you use this RPS.”Companies should “resume use of chemicals to treat effluent as soon as is practicable”, the agency said. The regulatory relaxation will last until at least the end of the year, with an extension possible. Of the three grades of waste water, low risk and medium risk will be allowed to be dumped into rivers and seas, but the highest risk will not.Amelia Womack, deputy leader of the Greens told The Independent: “Our rivers are already appallingly polluted: water companies discharged raw sewage in UK rivers no fewer than 400,000 times last year.”The public were rightly horrified by this failure of the Environment Agency to take action and clean up our waterways”“Now, are seeing more pollution being sanctioned as a result of the failure of Government.“This is a failure of their understanding on how our country’s most basic infrastructure works and using our environment as a dumping ground rather than addressing the root causes of the problem.”To prevent further Brexit chaos and undermining of environmental protections, the government must work to mend supply chains and work to cooperate rather than trying to look ‘tough’.”A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs said the change was “strictly time-limited and there are robust conditions in place to mitigate risks to the environment”.The spokesperson said that the “most sensitive and high-risk watercourses will not be affected and any company planning to make use of this short-term measure must first agree its use with the Environment Agency, which will be checking compliance”.The government on Monday announced it would be indefinitely extending grace periods with the EU in order to delay the introduction of even more extensive bureacracy, which was set to come into effect later this year. More

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      UK must postpone Cop26 because poorest nations being shut out, say campaigners

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      Environmentalists have called on Boris Johnson’s government to postpone the Cop26 UN climate talks in November amid fears people from poorer countries will not be able to take part.The crucial talks in Glasgow – aimed at making countries deliver the emissions cuts needed to overcome the climate emergency – have already been delayed from 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.The Climate Action Network, a global network of more than 1,500 civil society organisations in more than 130 countries, called on the UK government and UN organisers to push it back again.The network blamed the failure to provide vaccines to millions of people in poor countries, the rising costs of travel and accommodation, and ongoing uncertainty over Covid.But Mr Johnson’s government insisted it is rolling out vaccines for foreign delegates and will fund quarantine hotels for those who would not be able to pay as part of efforts to ensure Cop26 can go ahead in November.The Climate Action Network said an in-person meeting in early November would exclude delegates, campaigners and journalists from the “Global South” or developing countries – many of whom are on the UK’s red list of countries people cannot travel from due to Covid.The network says shutting out these people from taking part in the conference would have serious implications for issues being discussed at the talks, such as providing finance for developing countries to help them cope with climate change and develop cleanly.“Our concern is that those countries most deeply affected by the climate crisis and those countries suffering from the lack of support by rich nations in providing vaccines will be left out and be conspicuous by their absence at Cop26,” Tasneem Essop, executive director, Climate Action Network.She added: “Looking at the current timeline for Cop26, it is difficult to imagine there can be fair participation from the Global South under safe conditions and it should therefore be postponed.”But Mr Johnson’s climate minister Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, said the conference “must go ahead” this November to allow world leaders to come together and set out commitments to tackle climate change.“We are working tirelessly with all our partners, including the Scottish Government and the UN, to ensure an inclusive, accessible and safe summit in Glasgow with a comprehensive set of Covid mitigation measures,” Mr Sharma said.Delegates who would otherwise struggle to get vaccinated, including those from campaign groups and the media as well as government officials, have been offered Covid vaccines by the UK government, with the first jabs taking place this week.The government has also relaxed its quarantine requirements for travellers from abroad for delegates, and has announced it will fund hotel quarantine stays for delegates and observers arriving from red list areas who would otherwise find it difficult to attend.The Cop26 Coalition of campaign groups in the UK joined the call for the government and UN organisers to postpone the conference until they can ensure a “genuinely inclusive” summit.Asad Rehman, director of the War on Want charity, said: “Whilst the richest will be able to attend the Cop, many poorer governments and civil society groups risk being excluded, threatening the very legitimacy of the climate summit itself.”He said the UK government had failed to live up to its own promise of the most inclusive Cop ever “as it continues to block access to life saving Covid treatments, creating a vaccine apartheid between the richest and poorest”.Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has called for an emergency summit to tackle the “scandal” of millions of people in low-income countries being denied a Covid vaccine.He published a report on Monday which claimed Western nations were “hoarding” nearly 300 million vaccines Mr Brown said could be saving lives in countries such as those in Africa. More

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      Almost 800,000 fewer homes zero-carbon due to Tory planning deregulation

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      Around 800,000 homes have been built to lower emissions standards or without carbon offsets because the government scrapped tough environmental rules six years ago, it can be revealed. Ministers were accused of wasting “years of vital progress” in the fight against the climate emergency, baking in high-carbon housing stock for decades, and driving up energy bills for families.The last Labour government introduced a legal requirement for new homes to be made net zero carbon by 2016, but in 2015 the Conservative government scrapped the plan at the last minute.796,710 new dwellings have been built since then, according to official figures – practically none of them net zero and all expected to last well beyond when the whole economy must hit net zero. It comes amid concern about the influence of property developers on the Conservative party, with the party having taken £891,000 in donations from the sector in the first quarter of 2021 alone. Companies linked to property developers have donated over £10 million to the governing party since the start of 2019 and Labour says Tories have consistently put the interests of donors ahead of the public.Approached about the policy change, the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government said the net zero requirement’s inclusion of “carbon offsetting” as a possible way for homes to hit net zero justified ending the requirement altogether.However, the government could have changed the rules of the schemes to simply not allow carbon offsetting.Offsetting, which involves strategies like planting trees to reduce the net emissions of a project, is also used in other areas of government policy, including as part of the government’s own national net zero emissions target.Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said: “The Government’s dither and delay means we’ve lost six years of vital progress in reducing emissions and lowering energy bills. “Sadly this mistake isn’t just a one-off but part of a damaging pattern. Just this year, the Government axed the Green Homes Grant scheme which could have helped households insulate their homes, reduce their emissions, and save money on bills. “800,000 households could have had lower energy bills and zero carbon homes by now if the zero carbon hones standard had not been abolished. Hundreds of thousands more homes will also be built before this standard comes in.”The Conservatives cannot be trusted to deliver, whether it’s on reducing emissions or protecting family finances.”The government has now said it will require homes to be made net zero by 2025, with higher emissions standards phased in. Offsets will also be used as part of the government’s plan to eventually make homes net zero.A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government said: “The Zero Carbon Homes policy involved carbon offsetting, rather than making homes zero carbon, and would have would have provided limited benefits to consumers as it wouldn’t necessarily have increased the efficiency of their homes.“By delivering carbon reductions through the fabric and building services in a home, rather than relying on wider carbon offsetting, the Future Homes Standard ensures new homes will have a smaller carbon footprint than any previous government policy.” More

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      Nicola Sturgeon calls on Boris Johnson to ‘reassess’ Cambo oil field plan

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      Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on Boris Johnson to “reassess” plans for the new Cambo oil field near Shetland following an outcry by climate campaigners.In a letter to the prime minister, the SNP leader said the UK government should reconsider drilling licenses for the waters around Shetland where no development had yet taken place.Ms Sturgeon – who has been under intense pressure from the Scottish Green Party and environmental activists on the issues – also asked for a four-nation summit on the climate crisis.“I am also asking that the UK government agrees to reassess licenses already issued, but where field development has not yet commenced. That would include the proposed Cambo development,” she said.The first minister said licenses should be reconsidered because of the urgency of the climate emergency and need to move away from fossil fuels. “We must ensure that the decisions and investments we make now are aligned with that ambition,” she wrote in her letter.But Greenpeace UK slammed her letter as a “PR exercise” – with campaigner Sam Chetan-Walsh saying: “Nicola Sturgeon is deferring to Boris Johnson to check the climate impact of Cambo, but until she makes her own stance clear this is just a PR exercise.”Friends of the Earth also accused Ms Sturgeon of “deferring to Boris Johnson on the future of North Sea oil and gas.”The group’s climate campaigner Caroline Rance said: “She has failed to actually state her government’s opposition to Cambo or any new oil and gas. If the first minister wants to show leadership she must go further than calling on someone else to review their position.” Both the first minister and prime minister have come under fire over plans by Shell and Siccar Point Energy to drill in the Cambo oil field in the face of runaway climate change.At the weekend Ms Sturgeon was cornered by anti-oil campaigners in her Glasgow Southside constituency – but insisted the decision on Cambo lay with the UK government.Challenged on whether she would oppose the oil field in Shetland, Ms Sturgeon said: “Look, I’m not going to stand here … it’s not an issue for the Scottish government. We are thinking about all of these things … There’s no doubt we should be moving away [from oil].”Campaigners at the Green New Deal Rising group also responded with dismay to Ms Sturgeon’s letter on Thursday, saying it was “not enough” to stop the oil field development.Jennifer Kowalski, who had challenged the first minister face-to-face in her constituency, said: “Asking the government to ‘reassess’ is not enough. She needs to stop hiding behind the Conservatives and commit to no new oil fields in Scotland.”Calls to oppose the Cambo development intensified after Monday’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which painting a stark picture of the impact of humanity on the climate due to the burning of fossil fuels and other pollutants.While not a full-throated opposition to Cambo going ahead, the first minister’s intervention is her first on the issue. It also marks a significant shift away from SNP talk of an oil “bonanza” in Scotland. Ms Sturgeon said Shetland was on the cusp of a “second oil boom” in 2014.Explaining her stance on Thursday, she tweeted: “Oil and gas supports thousands of jobs in Scotland so our transition away from fossil fuels must be a just one. But the climate emergency demands that it happens at pace.”In her letter to Mr Johnson, Ms Sturgeon said: “We are both well aware of the importance of oil and gas over many decades – not least in terms of jobs – to the Scottish and UK economies. However, the answer to these challenges, given the urgency of the climate emergency, cannot be business as usual.”The SNP leader added: “Indeed, I am asking that the UK government now commits to significantly enhancing the climate conditionality associated with offshore oil and gas production.”The proposed Cambo oil field development is estimated to produce 132 million tonnes of carbon during its lifetime – a figure that would need a land mass 1.5 times bigger than Scotland to counter.Last week Mr Johnson claimed that the government “can’t just tear up contracts” as campaigners urged him to block the Cambo project.“This was a contract that was agreed in 2001 and we can’t just tear up contracts,” the prime minister told Sky News. “There’s a process to be gone through.” More