19th November 2025
The UK Government is currently considering an application from oil giant Equinor to drill the Rosebank oil and gas field in the North Sea. In a joint letter, senior health leaders representing a range of healthcare professions have written to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero calling on them to reject the application due to the significant health risks posed by greenhouse gas emissions associated with the field. The text of the letter is copied below. A pdf can be downloaded via the link.
19 November 2025
Dear Sir Keir Starmer and Rt Hon Ed Milliband,
We write to you as health leaders deeply concerned about the threat which climate change poses to human health and survival both here and abroad, and the urgent need for global leadership at this critical time.
For these reasons, we call upon you to reject development of the Rosebank oil and gas field, and to demonstrate global leadership in taking meaningful action to phase out fossil fuel dependency.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared climate change to be a major threat to global health.[1] Harm is caused directly (e.g. from extreme weather events, heat illness, spread of infectious diseases, and starvation). Pollutants produced from fossil fuel combustion also contribute to causing disease ranging from respiratory disease and reproductive disease, diabetes to dementia, cancer to coronary disease, and more.[2]
Climate change impacts the socioeconomic factors upon which we all depend for our wealth, health and survival. Without adequate action, we face collapse of our ecosystems and economy, and mass migration.
Climate change is already driving food insecurity and food price inflation in the UK.[3] Between 2022-23 climate impacts on both home grown and imported food supply resulted in an average increase of £360 to every UK household’s food bills.[4] UK arable farmers lost over £1bn to extreme weather events in 2024 alone [5], and the food industry warned that ‘predictability of [food] supply … is not something we will be able to rely upon over the coming years’.[6]
Dependency on oil and gas carries mounting economic costs. The average cost to the UK economy from heat-related deaths in those over 65 has increased by 58% since 2000-2004 to £33bn between 2020-2024, and is set to rise further with global heating.[7] Labour productivity is also at risk – 5 million hours were lost to heat exposure in 2024.[7] The UK’s fossil fuel dependency also makes local communities vulnerable to highly fluctuating energy prices. At a global scale, economic collapse will accelerate that of society. Insurance actuaries warn that we may soon face the loss of 50% of Global Domestic Product [8] and that ‘our economy may not exist at all’ without immediate action.[9]
Climate change is already driving mass migration. Globally, people displaced by disasters, such as storms and floods, broke a record high in 2024 with 45.8 million people displaced across 163 countries. Climate change fuelled migration poses a growing threat to food security.[10] The UN warns that starvation, disease and economic collapse bring migration ‘of entire populations on a biblical scale’ and war [11]. The 2024 Climate Report says we are ‘on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster’ and ‘much of the very fabric of life on Earth imperiled’.[12] And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that without immediate intervention, we will miss ‘a rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future’.[13]
Granting access to exploit the Rosebank Field would fly in the face of the Government’s ambition to shift our health service from sickness to prevention, to save our NHS budget, to drive growth in the green economy, and to address climate change at pace and scale. It would be an abandonment of UK climate commitments.
Granting access to exploit the Rosebank Field would fly in the face of the Government’s ambition to shift our health service from sickness to prevention, to save our NHS budget, to drive growth in the green economy, and to address climate change at pace and scale. It would be an abandonment of UK climate commitments.[14] If allowed to go ahead, the oil and gas field would produce more CO2 than the annual emissions of the 700 million people living in the world’s poorest countries in a year and could lead to a net tax loss of over £250 million to the UK Treasury.[15] It won’t lower bills or provide long term energy security.
We were encouraged by your speech at the United Nations COP30 Summit where you highlighted the UK’s leadership in tackling the climate crisis and making Britain a clean energy superpower saying, “Our aim is simple: To make energy a source not of vulnerability, but of strength. An engine to create thousands of new jobs, bring down household bills, and end once and for all our exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets.” [16]
The health of UK citizens depends upon a strong economy fuelled by clean energy, upon diplomatic (energy) independence, and upon climate security. The decision on the Rosebank oilfield is a defining moment for the credibility of your Government to deliver on its laudable ambition to be a clean energy superpower and an NHS Fit for the Future.
As you said at COP30, you don’t protect jobs and communities by standing still. You do it by embracing change. We urge you to rise to this moment and do the right thing.
With regards,
Professor Hugh Montgomery OBE FMedSci, Chair UK Health Alliance on Climate Change; UCL Professor of Intensive Care Medicine
Dr Sandy Mather, Chair UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
Professor Kamila Hawthorne MBE, Chair, The Royal College of General Practitioners
Professor Ranee Thakar, President, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Dr Mark Harber, special adviser on healthcare sustainability and climate change, Royal College of Physicians
Professor Owen Bowden-Jones, Registrar, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Clare Morlidge, Co-President, UK Kidney Association
Dr Frances Elliot, Chair British Society of Lifestyle Medicine
Kerry Holden, Vice President, Infection Prevention Society
Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz, President, Faculty of Public Health
Susan Fenton, Chair, Association of Dental Hospitals
Dr Katrina Davies, GP and director, Greener Practice CIC
Dr John Chisholm CBE, President, British Medical Association
Professor David Werring, President, British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians
Patricia Marquis, Executive Director, RCN England
Dr Daniel Harwood, Chair, Planetary Health and Sustainability Committee, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Gordon Miles, Chief Executive, The Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Dr Rajeka Lazarus, President, British Infection Association
Dr Sue Pavord, President, British Society for Haematology
Dr Louise Buchanan, Vice-President Professional and Society Values, British Cardiovascular Society
Dr Jamie Phillips, ecoSAM Sustainability SIG lead, Society of Acute Medicine
Professor Claire Anderson, President, Royal Pharmaceutical Society
References
[1] WHO Climate change and health https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA77/A77_R14-en.pdf
[2] GCHA 2025. The health toll of fossil fuels https://climateandhealthalliance.org/cradle-to-grave-the-health-toll-of-fossil-fuels-and-the-imperative-for-a-just-transition-2nd-edition/
[3] Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. Why food prices are still rising https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/why-food-prices-are-still-rising-butter-beef-and-milk-to-blame
[4] Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. Climate change fuelled migration poses growing threat to UK food security https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/climate-change-fuelled-migration-poses-growing-threat-to-uk-food-security
[5] Farmers Weekly. Farmers lost £1bn to extreme weather. https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/weather/farmers-lost-1bn-to-extreme-weather-in-2024-defra-says
[6] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tATFmJG0wOtLDHxionMX0qNEXw49tjRl/view (accessed 29/10/2025)
[7] Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health Global Report 2025
[8] Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Planetary solvency: finding our balance with nature. https://actuaries.org.uk/planetary-solvency (accessed 29/06/2025)
[9] Trust S, Joshi S, Lenton T, et al. The Emperor’s New Climate Scenarios Limitations and assumptions of commonly used climate-change scenarios in financial services: Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, 2023 https://actuaries.org.uk/media/qeydewmk/the-emperor-s-new-climate-scenarios.pdf
[10] https://eciu.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8ed7ad7972fae058e8f4fb7e8&id=f0d1896016&e=ba97be88c5
[11] United Nations. Conflict and Climate 2022. https://unfccc.int/news/conflict-and-climate
[12] William J Ripple et al. The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth, BioScience, Volume 74, Issue 12, December 2024, Pages 812–824, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae087
[13] IPCC. Climate change: a threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet. Taking action now can secure our future, 2022 https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/02/28/pr-wgii-ar6/
[14] The climate implications of new oil and gas fields in the UK, UCL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/sites/policy_lab/files/report-climate_implications_pages_online.pdf
[15] The Scotsman. Treasury poised to miss out on £250m in tax receipts from Rosebank oilfield. https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/rosebank-oil-treasury-tax-receipts-north-sea-5184881
[16] United Nations COP30 Summit speech https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-speech-at-the-united-nations-cop30-summit-6-november-2025