Don't allow oil companies to make our overheated oceans worse - and destroy people's livelihoods

At sea, a marine heatwave is ripping through our waters like wildfire through a forest. And just like on land, death stalks our seas, with scientists warning that high ocean temperatures could result in mass die-offs for marine wildlife.

The climate crisis is here, and already, many species in our seas are being forced to move north at a rate of knots every year. This carries the risk of severe population decline and disruption of entire food chains.

In the south-west of England, creel fishers whose livelihoods depend on lobster have been left with no alternative but to switch to octopus, as its population explosion continues for the second year. Whether it will continue, and if the shellfishery will recover, no one can say for sure.

This uncertainty for local communities extends to much larger scales. The critical ocean current system – the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation – is significantly more likely to collapse than previously thought, recent research has shown. For Scotland this would mean extreme cold in winter and drought in summer. We cannot be sure if we should be preparing for a minus 20 degrees Celsius or 45, or both.

What we do know with 100% certainty is that the crisis is unfolding, and we are the last generation with the power to do anything about it.

It is against this backdrop that decisions are being made about new oil and gas licences in the North Sea. Communities in the Northeast of Scotland are justifiably angry and worried. The North Sea basin is in decline, and jobs more than halved between 2014 and 2024, despite governments handing out licences as if they were candy. What they failed to do was plan for a fair transition for workers, instead they have let oil companies continue to draw vast profits from our seas without a thought for the future.

The government cannot continue with this deeply harmful strategy. It must consider the endgame for oil and gas. Alongside investing in community-oriented, nature-friendly renewable energy and the green jobs it generates, it must also account for the infrastructure still in the sea.

Early and effective decommissioning could support 25,000 jobs across the UK supply chain while also preventing the damage to ocean life caused by degrading infrastructure, recent analysis has shown. Oil companies should be held to account to pay up and clean up. They have, after all, made literally billions in profits from our shared resources in the North Sea.

And no, the UK’s actions alone cannot solve the climate crisis. But they can show global leadership, respect for today’s workers, and regard for the future we want. Our ocean has taken in over a nuclear bomb’s worth of heat every second for the past 150 years. But on a finite planet, everything has a limit. We must act now.

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Hugo Tagholm is Director of the charity Oceana UK, which is fighting for UK seas to get the protection they deserve.

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