In a move that will surely reassure anyone worried about the planet slowly cooking itself, the owner of the controversial Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea has released a report claiming the project will 'not materially influence' global warming. Adura's updated Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) argues that the field will account for less than 0.02% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime. That's like saying one more straw won't break the camel's back, when the camel is already lying on the ground gasping for air.

The new assessment was required by the industry regulator, Opred, after a previous submission was found to be lacking in several areas. This all stems from a judge's ruling that ministerial consent for Jackdaw was unlawful, following a legal challenge from environmental groups like Uplift and Greenpeace. The Court of Session in Edinburgh decided that the UK government had failed to consider the climate impact of burning the extracted oil and gas - a detail that seems somewhat important.

Adura, a joint venture between Shell and Equinor, produced a 159-page document that includes a novel argument: that extracting gas from Jackdaw could actually be better for the climate than importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States. By displacing imports, the field could save the equivalent of four million tonnes of CO2, because domestic gas doesn't need to be liquified, shipped across the Atlantic, and regasified. That's like saying a home-baked pie is healthier than a frozen one because you save on packaging, even if both are full of butter.

The report also leans on the UK's status as a 'well-regulated industry' with targets aligned with the Paris Agreement. Left unsaid: the Paris Agreement aims to limit warming to 1.5-2°C, and the UK's own climate watchdog has warned that new oil and gas fields are incompatible with those goals. But hey, 0.02% here, 0.02% there - pretty soon you're talking real climate change.