Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 28
Badenoch Urges Britain to Resume North Sea Drilling as Europe Faces 12C-to-Heatwave Climate Backlash
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 28

Badenoch Urges Britain to Resume North Sea Drilling as Europe Faces 12C-to-Heatwave Climate Backlash

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 28

Summary

  • Kemi Badenoch used a speech in Aberdeen to demand that Britain “get drilling again,” saying the “war on oil and gas must end” as she backed the UK fossil-fuel industry.
  • Aberdeen — a major North Sea petroleum hub — provided a symbolic setting for the appeal, delivered on a 12C day even as Europe was reeling from record heat.
  • The intervention ties energy policy to a broader political fight over climate responses, with right-wing parties seeking to turn heat-related disruption into an attack on mainstream elites.
  • That creates a sharp tension at the center of the debate: the same oil and gas industry Badenoch defended is linked to the climate change that contributed to the continent’s latest heat extremes.

Insights

As Europe bakes, why are leaders pushing the fossil fuels that are turning up the heat?
Can Europe's climate goals withstand pressure from its own populists and a pro-oil United States?
Is air conditioning a human right in a warming Europe, or an environmental trap?