I know how precious Sheffield’s environment is to its citizens. There are many areas where we can be very proud of our city’s green credentials – we have more parks and open spaces than any other city. We also have amongst the lowest landfill rate in the developed world, rising recycling levels and beautiful rivers that are increasingly clean. We also generate more solar power per person than anywhere else in the UK.

So many of us are waiting with baited breath to see what the government announces in the next round of onshore gas licenses, which could well include Sheffield. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The threat of climate change is very real, as our climate changes in very clear ways and at a rapid pace, as a result of our collective actions. The debate over the causes of climate change is over, as my comments on the IPCC report made clear.

In the UK, we are seeing the most extreme weather patterns since the last ice age. We now have the situation where Sheffield can have both a drought and flood almost at the same time, but certainly in a pattern of extreme weather.

Lots of people in Sheffield are already seeing the effects of a changing climate - through rising grain, wheat and food prices, poorer crop harvests, increased flooding and higher insurance costs. This winter just gone was amongst the warmest in our history. The 12 warmest years in our history have all come in the last 15.

Fundamentally, we can’t have a strong economy in a pillaged environment. That’s why we’ve launched Sheffield’s Green Commission (see here) . I want the Green Commission to help us become a national leader in protecting our environment and fighting climate change.

We know we have already discovered more fossil fuels than can safely be burned. The problem with fracking is not just the process – it’s conceivable that could be made safe. Ultimately, the gas produced through fracking is a dirty, carbon-based fossil fuel that will hasten the destruction of our climate. Instead, we need a revolution in energy generation, championed by the government and delivered by councils working with local communities.

That’s why Sheffield was amongst the first to take a robust line on fracking. Our leadership has paved the way for others to follow. Labour Newcastle is the latest to go frack-free. In their motion, they commended Sheffield’s approach, saying they expressed their “support for Sheffield council’s motion in opposition to fracking, and to other UK councils which have made similar statements”.

I know our position isn’t universally popular – the Master Cutler has provided an alternative view. But despite this opposition, the view of Sheffield City Council is that our environment and the safety of our citizens are too important to risk in a reckless dash for gas.

Because we don’t just share a city, we share a planet. We have to protect it together.

Jack Scott

Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling & Streetscene

Sheffield City Council

On the 16th July 2014, IGAS Energy held an exhibition in Austerfield, South Yorkshire.
We understand that in July IGas distributed 4,000 flyers advertising this event to the houses in the villages in and around the area that had been seismic tested earlier this year (source: chair of IGas Community Liaison Group).

There are less than 4,000 houses in the area (source: we counted them).

Isn’t it odd then that many residents complain that they did not receive a flyer? How can people hear, discuss and challenge the industry's side of the argument if they did not receive an invitation?

Community consultation? No.

And what was it the IGas people told me at their exhibition in Austerfield in July? Ah yes - renewable energy sources are unreliable - the lights will go off.

In the first quarter if 2014 30% of Germany’s entire energy needs were supplied from renewable energy sources. If IGas is correct Germany must have had a lot of blackouts . But no, it would appear not.



















According to data recently highlighted by ECO Report, the availability of electricity in Germany was lost only for an average of 15.91 minutes per customer in 2012, according to figures from the Council of European Energy Regulators. That’s far better than the UK which lost 81.42 minutes per customer in 2008. Of all the countries tracked, Japan and Singapore are the only two with reliability to match Germany’s.

So who had the blackouts? Germany, or the IGas exhibition staff?

Of all the countries tracked, Japan and Singapore are the only two with reliability to match Germany’s.

Last week, DEFRA published the report 'Shale Gas: Rural Economy Impacts' on fracking, that contains 63 redactions across13 pages.

This report examines the effect that fracking will have on rural communities. But with so many redactions one is left wondering what they are hiding?


…and nothing but the truth

'The Times' ran an article on 13th August 2014 on how differently worded surveys give different results - this one on fracking "Public back fracking . . . depending on how you ask the question" 
(thanks to Friends Of the Earth for this).

Only one in four people supports fracking to extract shale gas, according to a government-funded survey that contradicts an opinion poll published a day earlier by the shale industry.

The proportion of people in favour of fracking fell from 29% in March to 24% in June, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said.

But two days earlier, the shale industry published a Populus survey that found that 57% of people believe that “the UK should produce natural gas from shale”.

The questions about fracking in the two surveys were posed in very different ways.

How can they differ so much?

The survey commissioned by UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) asked several questions about Britain’s need for investment and greater energy security before the key question on fracking. The question included a long preamble explaining the “tiny fractures” involved and how shale gas could “heat the UK’s homes for over 100 years”.

The DECC survey included a brief explanation of fracking as “a process of pumping water at high pressure into shale”, then asked people to state their level of support for it.

The DECC survey found that 79% of UK adults supported the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

A University of Nottingham survey found in May that just under half of people favoured fracking, while almost a third were against.

A UKOOG spokeswoman said the DECC survey, unlike its own, gave people the option to say that they “neither support nor oppose” fracking, and 47% had chosen this, while another 4% had selected “don’t know”.
She said: “This shows that the majority of people are open-minded, and the industry’s hope is that if we can give them factual information and explain the value of shale gas exploration to the UK nationally and to local communities in particular then they will become even more supportive.”

Did the industry survey tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Why is it so difficult for IGas, the industry and our government to engage with everyone, to be consistent, to reveal ALL the information, to be open and honest?