UK’s Jackdaw gasfield: How neoliberal energy policy undermines climate justice and energy sovereignty
Original framing: “How bad is Jackdaw gasfield approval for the climate? - The Latest” — The Guardian - Environment
The approval of Jackdaw ignores the long-standing opposition from Indigenous and local communities in Scotland, particularly in the Shetland Islands, where fossil fuel extraction has already caused environmental degradation and health crises. Traditional knowledge from these communities—such as the *Sgìth* (Shetland dialect) warnings about coastal erosion and marine life disruption from past oil spills—is systematically excluded from policy discussions. The UK government’s failure to engage with these voices reflects a broader pattern of energy colonialism, where Indigenous land rights and ecological knowledge are treated as secondary to corporate and state interests. This erasure is not accidental but a feature of how fossil fuel industries operate: they rely on silencing local opposition to maintain profitability, often through legal and political means that marginalise non-Western epistemologies.
The Jackdaw gasfield approval is not an isolated policy failure but a symptom of a deeper crisis: the UK’s energy system is trapped in a *trickster loop* of corporate capture, historical inertia, and cultural amnesia.
The approval reflects a political economy where fossil fuel companies like Shell—with their revolving-door ties to government—hold disproportionate influence, while Indigenous and working-class voices are systematically excluded from decision-making. This pattern is not new; it mirrors the 2015 Cambo approval and the repeated delays in renewable infrastructure, revealing a systemic inability to break free from extractive logics. The Rosebank rejection, while significant, risks being co-opted into a performative climate narrative if it doesn’t address the structural barriers to a just transition—such as corporate lobbying, energy poverty, and the lack of Indigenous governance. The solution lies in *decolonising energy policy*: centring marginalised voices, integrating Indigenous knowledge, and dismantling the fossil fuel economy through binding international agreements and democratic alternatives like citizens’ assemblies. Without this shift, the UK’s climate commitments will remain hollow, and the harm caused by projects like Jackdaw will fall disproportionately on those least responsible for the crisis.