Tory fracking dash equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 300 million cars

New research from Labour released to coincide with a visit by Jeremy Corbyn to Lancashire, has found that Tory plans to force through dangerous fracking would release CO2 equivalent to the lifetime emissions of nearly 300 million cars, obliterating the UK’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.

The government is already on track to miss key legally-binding targets set out in their carbon budgets, but these figures illustrate just how damaging Tory fracking would be. Projected emissions from fracking would overshoot the UK’s current annual emissions 20 times over, ending any chance of complying with our Paris climate obligations.

The UK holds an estimated 1,400 trillion cubic feet in shale gas reserves, of which roughly ten per cent should be recoverable through fracking. The Tory ambition is for these reserves to be fully exploited, releasing over seven billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.