SO Third Energy is explaining why UK-produced gas and renewables together are important in addressing climate change. This is dangerous stuff: believe it at your peril.

At the present rate of increase, it is estimated that within nine years the global mean atmospheric CO2 content will have reached a point at which catastrophic events due to climate change are likely to become irreversible.

There is no chance that shale can generate a profit within this time scale: the operators are therefore, axiomatically, betting on massive unstoppable proliferation should first fracks reveal accessible reserves.

The effect on global warming is clear.

According to Heriot-Watt University’s John Underhill, the geology of the UK is such as to render it likely that the estimated commercially available shale resources might be much less than thought.

Meanwhile, ostrich-like, the company UK Oil and Gas scares us with the information that imported gas could rise to 80 per cent of UK gas consumption by 2035 – 18 years away.

Professor Haszeldene of Edinburgh University has commented “it will be .. difficult to match the low price of shipping imports of shale .. gas from the US”, ... “So even if the geology does not sink your economics, the extra UK costs will.”

No. A new fossil fuel industry in the UK cannot address climate change. We must abandon fracking, importing the gas we need while massively switching to renewables.... and now.

David Cragg-James, Stonegrave