A RECENT report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calls for “deep emissions reductions in all sectors ... and a significant upscaling of investments in those options”.

The “large scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) can only be achieved if global CO2 emissions start to decline well before 2030”.

This echoes the findings in 2016 of the Government’s own Committee on Climate Change that “even without additional emissions from onshore petroleum extraction ... it is difficult to see how significant further emissions reductions could be found to offset the impact of additional fossil fuel production”.

In other words, the fracking and burning of more fossil fuels goes completely against the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, the international Paris Agreement and this latest IPCC report. The imminent fracking in Lancashire and at Kirby Misperton in Ryedale reveals a governing party pocketing generous donations from the fossil fuel industry and overturning the democratic will of local communities – while at the same time claiming to support CO2 reduction. It’s a disgrace.

Dr Peter Williams, Malton