‘Grossly irresponsible’: UK hands out 24 new North Sea oil and gas licences
-The move to grant 17 companies the right to drill for fossil fuels is ‘a pipe dream’ that will do little for energy security, say environmentalists

“极度不负责任”：英国发放了24张新的北海石油和天然气许可证
——环保人士说，授予17家公司开采化石燃料的权利是“白日梦”，对能源安全没有什么帮助
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(The North Sea regulator said 17 oil companies were granted licences in the Central North Sea, Northern North Sea and West of Shetland areas to “provide benefits to the local and wider economy”.)

（北海监管机构表示，17家石油公司获得了在北海中部、北海北部和设得兰群岛西部地区的开采许可证，以“为当地和更广泛的经济带来好处”。）
新闻：

Britain has handed major oil companies the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea as part of the government’s mission to extend the life of the ageing oil and gas basin.

英国已授予各大石油公司在北海24个新许可区域开采化石燃料的权利，这是政府延长老化油气盆地寿命的任务的一部分。

The North Sea regulator said 17 oil companies, including Shell and BP, were granted licences in the Central North Sea, Northern North Sea and West of Shetland areas to “provide benefits to the local and wider economy”.

北海监管机构表示，包括壳牌和英国石油在内的17家石油公司获得了在北海中部、北海北部和设得兰群岛西部地区的开采许可证，以“为当地和更广泛的经济带来好处”。

The latest licences, which follow an initial tranche of 27 licences offered in October last year, could begin producing oil and gas before the end of the decade, according to the North Sea Transition Authority.

北海过渡管理局表示，在去年10月发放的首批27张许可证之后，最新一批许可证（企业）可能会在2030年前开始从事石油和天然气生产。

The move has angered MPs and environmental campaigners who called the move “grossly irresponsible” and accused the government of overstating the economic benefits of the North Sea and sacrificing Britain’s climate leadership for “a pipe dream”.

此举激怒了国会议员和环保人士，他们称此举“非常不负责任”，并指责政府夸大了北海的经济效益，并为了实现一场“白日梦”牺牲了英国在气候变化方面的领导地位。

Graham Stuart, the minister for energy security and net zero, was forced to defend the government’s decision to encourage more North Sea oil and gas drilling despite signing up to a pledge to phase out fossil fuels at the Cop28 UN climate talks in December. He told MPs on the environmental audit committee that the new licences would be “good news in our transition to net zero”.

英国能源安全和净零排放大臣格雷厄姆·斯图尔特被迫为政府鼓励更多北海石油和天然气钻探的决定辩护，尽管他在去年12月举行的联合国气候变化大会上签署了一项逐步淘汰化石燃料的承诺。他告诉环境审计委员会的议员，新的许可证将是“我们向净零过渡的好消息。

“If we didn’t have new oil and gas licences we would import new [liquefied natural gas] from abroad which is four times as carbon intensive as the gas produced here. I accept it’s counterintuitive but it’s not a complex argument to see it’s the right thing to do,” Stuart said. “New oil and licences strengthen our ability to get to net zero, they strengthen and support our climate leadership.”

“如果我们没有新的石油和天然气许可证，我们将从国外进口新的（液化天然气），其碳排放强度是国内生产的天然气的四倍。我承认这是违反直觉的，但要证明这是正确的做法并不复杂。”斯图尔特说。“新的石油和许可证加强了我们实现净零排放的能力，它们加强和支持了我们在气候变化方面的领导地位。”
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The government has come under fierce criticism for its stated policy to extract as much oil and gas as possible from the North Sea after leading climate experts warned that fossil fuel production must end if global governments hope to curb the rise in global heating.

英国政府宣称要从北海开采尽可能多的石油和天然气，这一政策受到了激烈的批评。此前，主要气候专家警告称，如果各国政府希望遏制全球变暖的加剧，就必须停止化石燃料的生产。

Philip Evans, a campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “The government knows that the fossil fuel industry is driving the climate crisis, but instead of cracking down on oil and gas giants like Shell, they’re greenlighting a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea.”

英国绿色和平组织的活动人士菲利普·埃文斯表示：“政府知道化石燃料行业正在推动气候危机，但他们非但没有打击壳牌这样的石油和天然气巨头，反而为北海的新一轮钻探狂潮开绿灯。”

Critics have pointed out that the policy, which will raise billions for the Treasury in the short-term, will do little to secure Britain’s energy supplies or lower energy bills because the new licences will mostly produce oil which the UK typically exports to refineries in Europe.

批评人士指出，这项短期内将为财政部筹集数十亿美元资金的政策，对保障英国的能源供应或降低能源账单几乎没有什么帮助，因为新许可证将主要生产英国通常出口给欧洲炼油厂的石油。

Tessa Khan, the executive director of Uplift, which campaigns against fossil fuels, said: “This government is selling us a pipe dream. These new licences will do vanishingly little for the UK’s energy security and nothing to lower energy bills. In the last 13 years the government has issued hundreds of new licences, which have produced a grand total of 16 days’ worth of extra gas. And in the past decade the number of jobs supported by the oil and gas industry has more than halved.”

反对化石燃料的组织Uplift的执行董事特莎·汗说：“这个政府正在向我们兜售一个白日梦。这些新许可证对英国的能源安全几乎毫无帮助，对降低能源账单也毫无帮助。在过去的13年里，政府已经颁发了数百个新的许可证，这些许可证生产的额外天然气总量只能满足16天的需求。在过去的十年中，油气行业提供的工作岗位减少了一半以上。”

The industry’s trade group, Offshore Energies UK, said the new licensing rounds would help to provide an orderly transition for the industry, which continues to support about 120,000 jobs.

该行业贸易组织英国离岸能源公司表示，新一轮的许可证发放将有助于为该行业提供有序过渡，该行业将继续支持约12万个就业岗位。

David Whitehouse, the chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, said: “We have over 280 oil and gas fields but by the end of the decade 180 of them will have stopped producing. We need the churn of licences for an orderly transition that supports jobs and communities across the country and meets our energy needs.”

英国离岸能源公司首席执行官戴维·怀特豪斯表示：“我们有280多个油气田，但到2020年，其中180个将停止生产。我们需要大量的许可证来实现有序的过渡，以支持全国各地的就业和社区，并满足我们的能源需求。”
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Khan said: “What workers and the public urgently need is a government that has a coherent transition plan so workers don’t get left behind, and a laser-like focus on bringing down people’s energy bills.”

汗说：“工人和公众迫切需要的是一个有一个连贯的过渡计划的政府，这样工人就不会落在后面，并且如激光一般聚焦于降低人们的能源账单。”

Bob Ward, the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said: “This is grossly irresponsible and undermines the best interests of the UK. The licences will not reduce energy bills or make us more energy secure. But they will further destroy the UK’s international reputation on climate change.

伦敦政治经济学院格兰瑟姆气候变化与环境研究所政策与沟通主任鲍勃·沃德说：“这是非常不负责任的，损害了英国的最大利益。这些许可证不会减少能源费用，也不会使我们的能源更加安全。但这将进一步破坏英国在气候变化问题上的国际声誉。

“This announcement will, however, undermine the confidence of investors in alternatives to fossil fuels and reduce our competitiveness in the new sustainable industries. This also suggests that the UK government did not act in good faith when it signed up to the collective decision at the Cop28 United Nations climate change summit in Dubai in November to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.”

“然而，这一声明将削弱投资者对化石燃料替代品的信心，并降低我们在新的可持续产业中的竞争力。这也表明，英国政府去年11月在迪拜举行的联合国气候变化峰会上签署了加速从化石燃料过渡的集体决定，却并没有真诚地采取行动。”