ANDY Burnham has broken his silence on climate change after pressure from green campaigners.
The Prime Minister drew scorn after convening a Cobra emergency meeting in response to recent extreme weather only to announce a ban on disposable barbeques.
And a Scottish Labour MP has now called on Burnham to rule out approval for the proposed Rosebank oil and gas field off the coast of Shetland, which holds more than 480 million barrels of oil and would be expected to produce 254m tonnes of CO2 equivalent during its lifetime.
Brian Leishman, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, said: “Imagine what kind of message it would send to approve the opening of Rosebank, the UK’s largest undeveloped oil field, after this country’s hottest summer on record, in which wildfires have broken out across all four nations, destroying homes and disrupting many lives. We need to be unequivocally on the side of people who are suffering as a result of this climate crisis, not creating cosy conditions for oil barons to make more billions.
"Both the UK and Scottish Governments have to accelerate renewables and the job opportunities that come with them to provide a genuinely just transition for workers and communities, and create the new green industrial revolution that we need.
“We have a great chance to build something special and provide thousands upon thousands of jobs while re-industrialising ex-industrial heartlands and make them prosperous places again, like they were before.”
Speaking from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, the Prime Minister described Britain as a "tinderbox" as he recognised it was "clear the climate is changing”, saying that the country has to “react accordingly” and move to "more clean energy”.
He added: "Obviously, there’s other adjustments that we need to make in relation to climate change. We might be in for a wet autumn and winter straight after this, because of El Nino and some of the issues there, which were reported to Cobra. So, after fire could come floods.”
The Prime Minister described seeing houses "gutted" by the blaze in Worcestershire, saying: "I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, I dealt with wildfires in Greater Manchester, but nothing on this scale. I’ve never seen scenes like this in Britain, where you just see a whole house gutted, smouldering."
It came after an open letter to Burnham, sent by charities including Greenpeace, WWF, Green New Deal Rising, the Women’s Institute, Uplift and Friends of the Earth, accused the PM of being unable to name “the cause of our rapidly changing environment” as 2026 is set to become the UK’s hottest summer on record.
Most of England and all of Wales are in a drought, while fires have raged from the Cairngorms to Birmingham.
Hannah Martin, co-director of the Green New Deal Rising pressure group, who coordinated the letter, said: "Finally Andy Burnham has said the words ‘climate change’ as Prime Minister and acknowledged the cause of the wildfires, drought and extreme heat that is raging across the country.
“Now he’s acknowledged the problem he needs to make sure his policies deal with the scale of the issue.
"That means saying no to new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea – we can’t burn more fossil fuels if we want to limit the worst effects of climate change.
"It also means ramping up new investment in renewable energy and climate jobs, doubling down on insulating homes and improving public transport, and making sure our homes, hospitals, schools and emergency services are properly equipped to deal with extreme weather caused by climate change.'
Ami McCarthy, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said it was "encouraging to hear Andy Burnham face up to the scale of the catastrophe the UK is facing from climate change".
They added: "It should not have taken a row of houses burning down and nurses fainting from the heat to move us beyond a ban on disposable barbecues.
“He's absolutely right that we need to address the driving cause of this heat, as well as our inability to deal with the consequences. Our fire services and NHS do need more support, but as he recognised, speeding up the transition to clean, homegrown energy is the only way to escape this inferno for good.
“Rosebank and Jackdaw represent a Rubicon that he must not cross."
Robert Palmer, deputy director of the charity Uplift, added that it was “clear that the root cause of the heatwaves, wildfires and droughts which are devastating the UK is climate change”.
He said: “Nearly three-quarters of the country is in drought, there have been over a thousand wildfires to date, the whole of England is under a health warning and a sixth heatwave is on the way later this month.
"Heartbreakingly, this is after the sweltering heat has already killed thousands this summer. This is also a horrific economic burden in terms of dealing with wildfires, ruined crops and fears that food bills are set to rocket."
Stop Rosebank campaigner Suzi Shingler said Burnham must "to prove to the country he is a man of principle".
She added: “The clearest way for him to do that is to come out and say he will not allow the development of the super-emitting Rosebank oil field. He should also stick to what the electorate voted for and that is for no new oilfields. If he doesn’t, he will lose the support of many in the country and rightly so as the UK battles unprecedented extreme heat.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: "The North Sea remains a vital national asset, supporting jobs, growth and the UK's energy security.
"We are clear that oil and gas will continue to play an important role in our energy system for decades to come, alongside transitioning to clean power to protect jobs and tackle the climate crisis."
