 October 26, 2022 'And I can give the honourable lady my commitment that we will deliver on all those ambitions. 'We will deliver on what we said at COP, because we care deeply about passing our children an environment in better state than we found it ourselves.' Liz Truss had said the ban on shale gas extraction in the UK would be lifted to ease Britain's dependence on overseas gas imports. Shale extraction could resume 'in six months', the new prime minister claimed in September, while saying an extra 100 licences for oil and gas wells in the North Sea would be greenlit. New exploration projects were expected to focus heavily on the North of Englan){kind=link}
New prime minister Rishi Sunak has indicated that he will keep the ban on fracking, saying he will uphold the 2019 manifesto pledge on fracking.
Caroline Lucas accused his ‘reckless’ predecessor Liz Truss of taking a ‘wrecking ball to nature’ during his first PMQs this afternoon, saying Mr Sunak had promised to ‘fix her mistakes’ after taking over yesterday.
She asked: ‘If he is a man of his word, will he start by reversing the green light she gave to fracking, since it has categorically not been shown to be safe, and instead stand by the moratorium that was pledged in that very manifesto that he has promised to uphold?’
Mr Sunak briefly responded, saying: ‘I have already said I stand by the manifesto on that’.
‘But what I would say is I’m proud that this government has passed the landmark Environment Act, putting more protection for the natural environment that we’ve ever had with a clear plan to deliver.