Oxford News
Expert Comment: Should the UK relax clean energy targets?
Dr Stuart Jenkins, Oxford Net Zero Research Fellow
Last week an Oxford Net Zero report laid out our views on the future for the global oil and gas sector. Helpfully for stimulating conversation, the next day the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) released their own policy brief discussing the challenges for the current UK energy strategy.
TBI’s brief suggests there are missed opportunities for UK oil and gas, which, if unlocked, would benefit the wider economy via energy security guarantees, private investment and growth, and increased tax revenues. They argue the UK should relax 2030 clean energy commitments and reduce the political barriers to new oil and gas investments – claiming these revisions would not unduly affect long-running net zero ambition in the UK.
These arguments rely on an overly simplified view of the UK’s energy supply-side, and risk giveaways for oil and gas with limited benefits for the UK economy. They are right that the UK’s energy strategy must strike a balance between maximising the returns on remaining fossil fuel assets today and developing future non-fossil assets for tomorrow.
There are several coordination challenges for net-zero-aligned energy supply. It’s not as simple as deploying renewables, and we do need to worry about the grid, local capacity in distribution networks, energy storage, intermittency, and financing electrification at the demand-side; as well, of course, as the reality on the ground in the rest of the world.
Naturally, the politics of these issues means that there are many possible framings for the future of oil and gas. Our recent research hints at several.
One credible future looks like this – ask license applicants to justify their proposal as viable, given the wind down of UK oil and gas more broadly, explain how the UK’s exposure to energy imports would meaningfully change under their proposal, and highlight how their proposal aligns with delivering net zero.
If they can do this, play ball.
This would be no easy ask for oil and gas producers. Our extracted oil and gas is largely sold overseas, weakening any claim that new extraction would support energy independence. And the oil and gas sector does not currently couple its business cases for net zero technology deployment with oil and gas expansion. But together they are key to demonstrating that any new oil and gas projects are not in conflict with our long-term energy and climate strategy.
It is also no easy task for the UK Government, who have assumed a portion of revenue from North Sea assets will be collected and available to the exchequer in the coming decades – this is something which the Treasury will want to protect. However, since the North Sea basins are already well known to be mature, and hence the tax take dwindling, the relative importance of this will decline over time as well.
From an energy strategy perspective, gas remains important for the UK given our reliance on it as a load-balancing fuel in the power sector, and in at least some home heating and industrial settings in the coming decades.
The UK’s exposure to gas imports is an important energy security challenge. This risk could be partly managed through North Sea supply if we also manage the risk of undermining climate policy through continued extraction. Oil will also become less strategic for the UK over time, although it will play a key role in the transition itself.
But arguments for new oil are more hampered by the fact that this extraction is likely to be sold overseas, reducing any case that it is in support of UK energy independence.
If changes to the energy strategy were accompanied by an update to the way we appraise oil and gas licenses, we would provide a world-leading framework for oil and gas to contribute to both the short- and long-term energy supply future for the UK.
There are several coordination challenges for net-zero-aligned energy supply. It’s not as simple as deploying renewables, and we do need to worry about the grid, local capacity in distribution networks, energy storage, intermittency, and financing electrification at the demand-side; as well, of course, as the reality on the ground in the rest of the world.
But these aren’t reasons to take a backward step on UK oil and gas, particularly when the majority of currently extracted products are sold overseas with limited benefit to UK taxpayers.
If changes to the energy strategy were accompanied by an update to the way we appraise oil and gas licenses, we would provide a world-leading framework for oil and gas to contribute to both the short- and long-term energy supply future for the UK.
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On Wednesday, September 2, it was the Concours judging and private viewings to dominate the agenda for the day.
Twelve Concours classes were held across almost a century of motoring, including The Golden Age of Motoring, 100 Years of Carrrozzeria Touring, La Dolce Vita, 60 Years of the Lamborghini Miura and Passione Ferrari.
Two new classes also made their debut for 2026, Rare Breeds of the Digital Age and Hypercar Heaven, which recognise the growing importance of contemporary performance cars within the international collector market.
Judging will take place across Wednesday and Thursday, with the show field bringing together a 70-strong collection of classics, supercars and hypercars from around the world.
Some of the cars include Aa Maserati 8C 3000, Alfa Romeo Sprint Berlinetta, a one-off Maserati 3500GT Spyder Prototipo by Vignale, a very early Porsche 356 Split Window Coupé, Aston Martin DB3S, Lamborghini Miura P400S, Bizzarrini 5300GT, Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 Cabriolet, Bugatti EB110 Prototype, Aston Martin Valiant Prototype and the extraordinary Bugatti Bolide, one of just 40 produced worldwide.
Helen Pike has decided to step down as Master of Magdalen College School at the end of the 2026/27 academic year, the school in east Oxford announced in March.
MCS is one of the top performing schools in the country, ranking in the top 20 independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Parent Power Schools Guide 2026.
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The new academic year will start next week, with Ms Pike preparing for one more year in charge before she hands over to her successor, who will take over in September 2027.
The first female Master at MCS, Ms Pike guided the board of governors to one of the most significant decisions in the school’s history, to become fully co-educational from 2027.
While there has been a co-educational sixth form at the school for 15 years, the school last month announced it will become fully co-educational over the coming decade.
Ms Pike said earlier: “I love MCS, and it is a perennial privilege to lead this remarkable school.
“Being Master of MCS is a brilliant job, and I am declaring my intention early in order to give MCS the very best opportunity to find the right Master for September 2027. I shall continue to do all in my power to further the fortunes of this wonderful school until then.
“I look forward to a new phase in my own professional life, one that builds on all that I have enjoyed and achieved in my career during the past 30 years.
“Having encouraged many cohorts of pupils to take sensible risks and to do something creative and different when the time feels right, I am doing just that.”
During Ms Pike’s tenure, MCS has been recognised as a Top 20 Independent School and South East School of the Year by the Sunday Times and won Independent School of the Year for Social Mobility.
Thanking her in his letter to the school community, chair of governors, Bob Price, said earlier this year: “Helen is an outstanding leader and will go with our sincere gratitude and warm thanks for her exceptional headship.
“She will leave the school in excellent shape for her successor.”
Recruitment for a replacement for Ms Pike is now under way.
Last month, Ms Pike congratulated pupils on their “outstanding success” in this year’s A-Level exams, after more than a quarter of pupils (43) achieved three A*s or more and 25 secured all A*s.
In total, 39 pupils from the 2026 cohort are heading to Oxbridge, while 22 have secured places to study medicine.
As part of the school’s expansion plans, MCS is preparing to build a new Science, Library and Partnerships building.
A spokeswoman said the new building will offer an exciting opportunity to reimagine the senior school site as staff look ahead to full co-education.
She added earlier: “With a vision to create a sector-leading science building in the centre of Oxford, the development will enable us to support an ambitious and forward-looking science curriculum, expanding to the emerging and rapidly advancing areas of robotics, AI and Big Data.”
Holding banners which read ‘For f**k’s sake, just stop oil’, the demonstrators took to the road in Parliament Square at noon today (Wednesday, September 2).
This was as Andy Burnham faced his first Prime Minister’s Questions, and many of the protestors glued themselves to the road.
The group demanded that the UK government stop approving all further oil and gas developments, and sign a Fossil Fuel Treaty to stop oil and gas extraction.
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Just Stop Oil say that the police are expected to arrest all those blocking the road, and that one lane has been left free of glued-on action takers to permit access for emergency vehicles.
Andy Burnham is due to make a decision on whether to allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Reverend James Crote, a Baptist Minister and grandfather from Chesterton near Bicester, said: “Today is my grandson’s first birthday. I have to take action for the sake of his future.
The 69-year-old added: “The government has been dilly-dallying about whether to say yes or no to the Rosebank oil field but, if we want a future for our children, there is no choice – it has to say ‘no’.
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“I am here as a Christian Minister because the Church has to speak out and demand that the government stops approving further oil and gas developments now. It’s time for us all to say ‘For God’s sake, Just Stop Oil’.”
Data from the Met Office indicates that 2026 was the hottest summer in UK recorded history, beating 2025, which was the previous hottest summer on record.
2026 was also one of the driest summers on record, delivering record-low food harvests.
Climbing temperatures have triggered wildfires across the country, and national fire chiefs said the wildfire risk facing the UK is “like nothing we have seen before”.
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Taking action, grandmother Victoria Ann Lynch-Staunton from Leamington Spa, said: “What is happening is beyond a tragedy.”
The 71-year-old added: “I beg everyone to join Just Stop Oil or governments will continue to prioritise endless growth and corporate profit over billions of lives – yours and your children.
“Wake up and smell the coffin. It is the responsibility of all of us to act now!”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said today: “We are all Just Stop Oil.
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“Every single person who fears deadly wildfires, devastating droughts, and spiralling food shortages is Just Stop Oil.
“The first duty of government is to keep the public safe – but by greenlighting oil and gas drilling, they endanger our survival while corporates and billionaires laugh their way to the bank.
“Every one of us feels alone and powerless in the face of this insanity, but we know there is massive political and public support for our demand.
“So we’re inviting everyone to join us at an online call on 3rd October 2026 – because it’s when we work together that we are powerful and win.”
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