Press release

Northern Ireland fails to respond to oil at $100 a barrel

3 February 2011

In response to global oil prices crossing the $100 a barrel threshold, Friends of the Earth today called on the Executive to make energy security its top priority. The environmental pressure group pointed to the price hike as evidence of the need to develop a new low-carbon business model and to strengthen Northern Ireland's economy by making it more self sustaining.

Friends of the Earth is concerned that the government has not addressed the issue of Peak Oil, which most analysts suggest will, at some point over the next decade, lead to a permanent crisis in fossil fuel production. The organisation believes that the Executive's renewable energy targets are unambitious and are not attainable without major investment in infrastructure.

They are also concerned that the rise in oil prices will compound Northern Ireland's already high rates of fuel poverty, and that this has not been assessed by the Executive.

Friends of the Earth NI Director James Orr said :

"It's hard to believe that the government response to dramatically rising oil prices is silence. The last time that oil broke $100 a barrel was in 2008, which contributed to a failure in global markets. For the Executive to ignore our energy security is to ignore the fragility of our economy and our entire way of life. Rather than treating this news as a wake-up call the government is leading us in the direction of an oil dependent future and is failing to grasp the opportunities of the low carbon economy. "

Mr Orr continued :

"I can only hope that the Executive has a secret plan to deal with the consequences of rising fuel prices. The evidence is that they are hell-bent on the opposite course - promoting policies that assume oil is a cheap, infinite resource. Instead of wasting £1bn on the new A5 road and subsiding regional airports, we should be investing in the rail network. Instead of allowing more greenfield development we should be building energy efficient compact communities and realising the potential of brownfield sites.

"The creation of 300 jobs to build wind turbines in the port of Belfast is one small indication of the potential to revitalise our economy by switching our energy source from polluting fossil fuel to cleaner renewable energy. However, the opportunity to create thousands of green jobs through fully implementing the Green New Deal, and nurturing local economies throughout Northern Ireland, is being squandered by the Executive through underinvestment and outmoded economic policies. Business as usual is no longer an option."

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust