Zack Polanski joins 250 orgs calling on Keir Starmer to Reject Rosebank

6 November 2025.

We have joined the Stop Rosebank coalition to challenge the UK Government not to give in to Big Oil and directly fund one of the companies most complicit in Israel’s illegal settlements and funding of the Israeli military.

Dear Prime Minister,

We, the undersigned, are writing to urge your government to reject the controversial Rosebank oil field.

Rosebank is a defining test of this government’s credibility on climate change. This enormous oil field would produce more CO₂ than the annual emissions of the 700 million people living in the world’s poorest countries produce in a year.

Rosebank’s vast emissions make it incompatible with UK climate commitments. The scientific evidence is clear that there is no room for new North Sea oil and gas projects if we are to stay within the thresholds set out in the Paris Agreement, to which the UK is a signatory.

Beyond this, Rosebank is a very bad deal for the UK – it won’t lower bills and would do almost nothing to boost energy security, given that most of it is oil destined for export. Its minimal gas reserves have the potential to cut our gas import dependency by, on average, just 1% a year (under the most favourable conditions and if no gas is exported).

Worse, Rosebank could lead to a net tax loss of over £250 million to the UK Treasury thanks to the enormous tax breaks for new drilling in the UK. This is economic lunacy, when the field’s owners Equinor and Ithaca would earn an estimated £1.5 billion in profit,  most of which would go to the Norwegian state, Equinor’s majority owners.

More worrying is that, if approved, Rosebank could see nearly a quarter of a billion pounds flow to a company that is contributing to human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory. Delek Group, which operates in illegal Israeli settlements and is known to provide fuel to the Israeli military, is the majority-owner of Ithaca Energy, Rosebank’s co-owner. Delek Group is on the UN database of companies involved in business activities that give rise to human rights violations against Palestinians.

In the midst of a climate crisis that is already bringing record heat, wildfires, flooding and drought to the UK and beyond, this Labour government must not cave into the pro-oil and gas agenda of politicians who doubt the science of climate change and want to hold back our renewable energy industry and its thousands of jobs.

Your government has rightly committed to prioritising clean energy and a fair transition for workers and communities. Approving Rosebank risks sending contradictory signals to investors, undermining the confidence and capital needed to deliver the UK’s clean power goal, locking us into more high-carbon infrastructure, and undermining the UK’s reputation for climate leadership, which is more vital today than ever.

Prime Minister, this is your government’s opportunity to show the UK – and the world – that it will put people and the planet before polluters’ profits.

We call on your Labour government to do the right thing and reject Rosebank.

Sincerely,

Stop Rosebank

For the full list of signatories please see here: Zack Polanski joins 250 orgs calling on Keir Starmer to Reject Rosebank – #StopRosebank