It began in 2021, when a climate justice coalition successfully forced multi-billion dollar corporation Shell to back out of developing the Cambo oilfield situated off the west coast of Shetland, keeping 170 million barrels of oil in the ground. Shell said it was a commercial decision. What they meant was that the risks and delays from threatened legal challenges along with growing political and public opposition, potential disruption by activists, plus blemishes to Shell’s reputation requiring costly rebranding, had made the development financially unviable.
The team behind Stop Cambo then took their wining formula and turned their attention to the UK’s biggest undeveloped oilfield Rosebank, with an estimated 300 to 500 million barrels of oil. Through a well-coordinated campaign of legal action, sustained targeted protest, direct challenges to Rosebank’s owners and shareholders, alongside fierce political pressure on decision makers, the Stop Rosebank campaign has been the sand in the gears of this climate-wrecking oilfield ever since.
If you look at the highlights of the campaign, you’ll see how effective it has been: over 1 million signatures against new oil and gas delivered to the UK Prime Minister, the sucessful landmark legal challenge to Rosebank’s approval, the environmental impact of the oil field raised over 113 times in the UK Parliament including a dedicated parliamentary debate, and over 38K mentions of Rosebank in the media. The list is long.
The recent exposure of the true environmental cost of the Rosebank oilfield is the latest victory for the campaign. The court case brought by Stop Rosebank coalition backers, Greenpeace and Uplift, forced the developers to revise and resubmit their Environmental Impact Statement (EIA) to include Scope 3 emissions – the impact of burning the oil extracted. An EIA without Scope 3 emissions has been likened to assessing the health risks of a packet of cigarettes without taking into account that they would be smoked.
In forcing, Norwegian State-owned Equinor, and Israeli-owned Ithaca Energy, to recalculate their figures, it has now been revealed that the oilfield is expected to release 250 million tonnes of planet warming gases into the atmosphere. The revelation is a further blow to the reputation of majority owners Equinor, who are already regretting their partnership with Ithaca Energy, since its parent company Delek was exposed as a UN blacklisted company as a result of facilitating and profiting from the construction and growth of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
From challenging this oilfield in the courtrooms of Edinburgh, to the endless hours of journalism and research exposing the owners shady ties, from corporate knit-ins, to joyful rallies and AGM disruptions, the Stop Rosebank coalition has met the developers at every turn to stand in their way. It has been the most effective climate campaign of its generation, building a credible resistance that is robust, informed, inclusive and optimistic. We believe that we can win, is the Stop Rosebank rallying cry. I believe it too, but now we must do better than belief.
The decision on whether or not to licence the extraction of oil from Rosebank is back on the desk of Keir Starmer. While this UK labour government promised no new oil licences, Rosebank could, on a technicality, be considered outwith the scope of that promise. The period of public consultation on Rosebank is open until Thursday the 20th November 2025, and the amount of noise we make about this is now crucial. Because if we can stop an oilfield, we might just stop an industry.
Call to Action: Writers, artists, makers: post it, write it, blog it, podcast it, sing it, do what you do best. Time is of the essence though and perfect is the enemy of done.
The Stop Rosebank team are ready with whatever resources you need to lend your support.
Grassroots action through the local press network underpins wider awareness raising and also encourages honest conversations within communities about how we meet our energy demands. Here is a guide to getting something in your local press.
From now until the closing date of the consultation, there will be a rolling-protest outside the Dept of Energy Security and Net Zero in London. Do go along and maybe read them some poems. Further details here.
Easy and immediate actions for individuals are here.
There is also the Knitting for Climate network who are opposing Rosebank by knitting red lines and scarfing statues to demonstrate the wide public support for climate action.