UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak supports the exploration of new oil and gas fields off the British coast, he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper on Saturday.

The stance will undoubtedly be met with opposition from environmentalists who accuse the British leader of sacrificing climate policy and pandering to voters unhappy with the rising cost of living.

But Sunak promises to be ”pragmatic and proportional” in his stance, which is seen as an attempt to distinguish his Conservative Party from the left-wing Labour Party.

According to opinion polls, the left is on the verge of taking power in the next election after more than a decade in opposition.

”It makes absolutely no sense, as Labour proposes, to ban oil and gas from the North Sea. It will weaken our energy security and empower dictators like Putin,” says Sunak.

”But it will also threaten both 200,000 jobs across some 30 sectors of the economy and GBP 80bn in tax revenue.”

Sunak, who became prime minister in October, says his approach is to ”support the UK energy industry.”

He adds that it’s about keeping the lights on across the UK.

”Any sensible person recognizes that we need the fossil fuels to get to net zero emissions,” he says.

Doubts on climate goals

In recent days, however, the UK government has proposed a number of relaxations to climate policy and expressed doubts about the country’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions.

On Friday, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg branded the UK government as ”out of touch with reality” after Energy Secretary Grant Shapps said it would maximize reserves in the North Sea.

A recent study by the organization World Weather Attribution states that the heatwaves that parts of Europe and North America are experiencing this summer would most likely not have occurred without anthropogenic climate change, which is driven by fossil fuels in particular.