A look at Burnham’s drilling rigs: a ‘yes’ to British gas. And what is Italy doing?

The British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has approved the development of the Jackdaw gas field, some 150 miles east of Aberdeen. The government is also due to make a decision shortly on another field, Rosenbank, some 80 miles north-west of the Shetland Islands. The decision is evidence of the ‘pragmatism’ that the current occupant of Downing Street has promised on energy and climate issues: caught between pressure from the Tories and Reform UK, who are pushing to abandon carbon neutrality, protests over the cost of living, and the insistence of two of Britain’s largest trade unions (GMB and Unite), Burnham has chosen to upset environmental groups, even though they traditionally support Labour.

Thanks to the increase in domestic production, she said, “we will safeguard hundreds of jobs and help heat millions of homes this winter”. To make the pill easier to swallow, Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh announced the creation of a Sovereign Energy Fund, with an initial endowment of two billion pounds, which will invest tax revenue from oil operations in renewable and low-carbon energy sources. From a political perspective, this represents a significant shift in strategy: it is not so much a betrayal of climate targets – which remain in place for the time being – as a less black-and-white view of the energy issue. While maintaining the commitment to reducing emissions and, therefore, fossil fuel consumption, as long as these remain necessary, it would be foolish to ignore the country’s existing resources, because it would mean foregoing the creation of jobs and wealth and because, at a time of severe market and geopolitical tensions, every contribution, however marginal, helps.

The example of London is instructive for us too: Giorgia Meloni, who in words shares the same views as her British counterpart, should lift restrictions, for example, on drilling in the northern Adriatic; whereas Elly Schlein, as it has become fashionable to say in Democratic Party circles when a left-wing leader wins abroad, should start afresh from Burnham.