00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:25.800
[Girl] This is made of oil.

00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:27.120
[Girl 2] This is made of oil.

00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:28.400
[Girl] This is made of oil.

00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:30.480
[Girl 2] This is made of oil.

00:00:30.520 --> 00:00:32.720
- [Girl] This is made of oil.
- [Girl 2] This is made of oil.

00:00:32.760 --> 00:00:34.480
[Girl] This is made of oil.

00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:36.080
[Girl 2] This is also made of oil.

00:00:42.400 --> 00:00:45.000
[Muffled, reverberant bubbling]

00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:05.680
[Boy] 200 million years ago,
there was land here and not sea.

00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:23.920
200 million years ago,

00:01:23.960 --> 00:01:27.720
a layer of plants and animals
were squashed under rocks.

00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:30.200
[Rustling]

00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:32.800
[Boy] These have now become oil.

00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:34.840
[Music]

00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:54.320
[Man] You know, humans have been on
the planet for, what, 200-300,000 years?

00:01:54.360 --> 00:01:57.920
Modern humans for 10,000 years.

00:01:57.960 --> 00:02:02.600
Industrial revolution
only started in the 1850s onwards,

00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.320
and actually,
the fossil fuel-driven society

00:02:05.360 --> 00:02:08.880
has probably really only been
100 years at most.

00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:14.640
[Music continues]

00:02:16.920 --> 00:02:19.720
[Man] It's a...just a blip
in the history of humankind.

00:02:19.760 --> 00:02:22.040
[Water sloshes, muffled]

00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:28.320
[Man] But that blip
in the history of humankind,

00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:31.960
we've completely locked ourselves in
and completely normalised

00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.800
the huge uses of both energy
and particularly fossil fuels.

00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:39.960
That period is going to have impacts

00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.480
for centuries and millennia to come.

00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:44.520
[Music continues]

00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:58.160
[Holly] It can feel like you're up against
something that's so massive,

00:02:58.200 --> 00:03:00.080
that's got the support of governments

00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:02.200
and people who are
so much more powerful than you...

00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:05.920
..that it's quite difficult sometimes

00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:08.440
to know what to do to change that.

00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:13.400 line:20%
I think that's basically
what eco-anxiety is.

00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:15.880 line:20%
- [Music subsides]
- Being constantly worried...

00:03:15.920 --> 00:03:18.560 line:20%
about whether or not
you're going to have a future.

00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:23.960
[Wind howls intensely]

00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:31.600
[Soft music]

00:03:37.480 --> 00:03:39.480
[Music subsides]

00:03:42.880 --> 00:03:45.920
[Kevin] Somewhere between
ten and 20 billion barrels of oil

00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:47.960
are still available in the North Sea.

00:03:50.200 --> 00:03:52.720
If all of that was found and combusted,

00:03:52.760 --> 00:03:55.200 line:20%
so that's going to be somewhere,
very approximately,

00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.160 line:20%
between say, four and ten
billion tons of carbon dioxide.

00:03:58.200 --> 00:04:00.720 line:20%
That is a huge amount of carbon dioxide,

00:04:00.760 --> 00:04:03.960
just from, remember,
the North Sea, the UK's North Sea.

00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.000
[Wind howls intensely;
Soft music]

00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:24.200
[Music subsides]

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000
[Wind howls]

00:04:42.200 --> 00:04:47.040
[James] Britain has been defined
by the North Sea.

00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:52.920
[Wind subsides]

00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:59.000
[James] In the beginning,
companies from all around the world

00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:04.000
came and invested huge sums
in the search for oil and gas.

00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:06.760
[Mechanical whirring, clanging]

00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:08.880
[Faint, indistinct conversation]

00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:11.640
[Harsh whirring]

00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:13.400
[Sharp mechanical hiss]

00:05:13.440 --> 00:05:15.840
[Indistinct walkie-talkie chatter]

00:05:15.880 --> 00:05:17.360
[Clanging]

00:05:17.400 --> 00:05:19.440
[Music continues]

00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:24.200 line:20%
Nobody thought that
there would be any oil in the North Sea.

00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:27.600 line:20%
That was just way beyond
the bounds of possibility.

00:05:27.640 --> 00:05:29.880
[Music]

00:05:40.080 --> 00:05:44.160
[Ship's horn blares]

00:05:44.200 --> 00:05:48.200
[James] In fact, even two or three days
before BP found oil,

00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:50.920
the head of BP
said it was an impossibility.

00:05:50.960 --> 00:05:53.000
[Music continues]

00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.800
[Music continues]

00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:07.720
[Music deepens]

00:06:09.840 --> 00:06:13.320
[James] And then in October 1970,

00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:18.680
they found oil in, really,
a massive field, in the Forties Field.

00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:22.040
110 miles off
to the north-east of Aberdeen.

00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:25.160
[Man, archive recording] Liquid gold,
call it what you like.

00:06:25.200 --> 00:06:29.360
Britain now has oil,
billions and billions of barrels of it,

00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:32.080
and it's been quietly lapping
at the doorstep all the time.

00:06:35.960 --> 00:06:38.240
[Helicopter blades whir]

00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:42.640
[Kevin] I was designing
and constructing offshore oil platforms

00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:44.680
with a team of other engineers.

00:06:48.520 --> 00:06:50.840
When you're flying into a rig...

00:06:55.080 --> 00:06:57.840
..and you look down
at these oil platforms,

00:06:57.880 --> 00:06:59.440
sometimes it just made me think,

00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:02.080
"This is amazing
that we've managed to do this."

00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:08.560
We're drilling thousands of metres
beneath the seabed

00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:10.640
in a really hostile part of the world.

00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:12.760
[Whirring continues]

00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:16.240
[Soft metallic clanging]

00:07:16.280 --> 00:07:19.680
[Kevin] It was a bit like
the Apollo project of the time.

00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:22.480
[Deep mechanical thrumming]

00:07:27.080 --> 00:07:30.520
[Muffled, reverberant hum]

00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:42.280
[Buzzing]

00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:55.720
[Man, archive recording] North Sea
platforms need saturation divers.

00:07:55.760 --> 00:07:58.160
They're men who have to live
for 30 days at a time

00:07:58.200 --> 00:08:01.360
at seabed pressure at 400 or 500 feet.

00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:09.800
[Hum continues]

00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:15.240
- [Archive Man 2] Diver back in the bell.
- [Soft clink]

00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:17.840
[Wind rushes fiercely]

00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.640
[Jake] It was like an adventure at first.

00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:27.040
You get out there,
and just the sheer scale of it,

00:08:27.080 --> 00:08:29.440
you know, the enormity of...

00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:34.960
..this island
in the middle of the North Sea

00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:36.520
with just nothing.

00:08:36.560 --> 00:08:38.560
[Wind softens]

00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:49.360 line:20%
I think there was this idea
that we were in this new industry,

00:08:49.400 --> 00:08:53.840 line:20%
we were developing something
which had never been done before,

00:08:53.880 --> 00:08:56.800
and everything you did...

00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:59.960
would benefit the country,
benefit the nation.

00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.720
We were the pioneers, if you like.

00:09:02.760 --> 00:09:05.200
[Music - "Venus in Tweeds"
by Shooglenifty]

00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:07.120
[Jake] You know, you were
breaking new ground every time,

00:09:07.160 --> 00:09:09.120
and new wells coming in.

00:09:09.160 --> 00:09:12.080
[Music continues;
Faint, indistinct chatter]

00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:19.720
[Music continues]

00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.560
[Jake] There was this idea that...

00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:30.240
you had to make the most of it as well
because it wasn't going to last long.

00:09:31.680 --> 00:09:33.680
[Music continues]

00:09:38.560 --> 00:09:39.840 line:20%
And suddenly,

00:09:39.880 --> 00:09:43.640 line:20%
crofters and fishermen's
sons and grandsons

00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:46.760 line:20%
are finding stable, well-paid jobs.

00:09:46.800 --> 00:09:50.120
[Music continues]

00:09:50.160 --> 00:09:55.760
[Ewan] It means things like
foreign holidays and car-ownership,

00:09:55.800 --> 00:09:58.960
and forms of consumption
that are, themselves, oil-related.

00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.000
[Music continues]

00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:20.160
[Ewan] There was a perception
that Britain's or Scotland's oil

00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:24.760
was being exploited for private gain.

00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:26.800
[Music continues]

00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:30.440
[Music subsides]

00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:34.360
[Ewan] 1974, there were
two general elections.

00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:36.560
The SNP stood on a platform of saying,

00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:40.040
"This is your chance,
perhaps your last chance,

00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:44.040
"to claim ownership...of these resources."

00:10:45.400 --> 00:10:47.600
By some estimates,
it could have made Scotland

00:10:47.640 --> 00:10:52.080
one of the richest economies
in Europe or the world.

00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:53.760
[Muffled clanging]

00:10:53.800 --> 00:10:55.800
There's a time coming...

00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:59.880
[Ewan] And the argument was,
if Scotland didn't achieve independence,

00:10:59.920 --> 00:11:04.480
then the UK government
was going to extract this oil

00:11:04.520 --> 00:11:09.160
as quickly as possible
under pretty favourable terms

00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:10.720
for the multinationals.

00:11:10.760 --> 00:11:13.760
[Water laps calmly]

00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:19.520
[Jake] At the time,
I think we owned about 60% or 70% of BP.

00:11:20.760 --> 00:11:23.200
We also created
the British National Oil Corporation,

00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:28.280
but the whole Thatcher ideology of,
"Let the markets run it,

00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.760
"and give it over to the markets,"
saw all of that sold.

00:11:30.800 --> 00:11:32.240
[Muffled clanging]

00:11:32.280 --> 00:11:34.680
[Jake] Compare that
to virtually any country in the world,

00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:36.280
apart from the States, I think,

00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:39.920
who've all got
nationalized corporations of some kind.

00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:42.920
But obviously, the standout one is Norway.

00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:46.920
I say that because
it's a comparative size to Scotland...

00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:49.040
and it's probably
the richest country in the world.

00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:04.720
[James] The government set about
dividing up the sea into blocks...

00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:08.960
..and selling off the national sea

00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:13.200
to international companies
such as BP and Shell and ExxonMobil,

00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:15.760
which is based in the US,

00:12:15.800 --> 00:12:18.640
and selling off to them
the rights of drilling

00:12:18.680 --> 00:12:21.360
in the North Sea for oil and gas.

00:12:21.400 --> 00:12:24.640
[Music - "Music for Pieces of Wood"
by Steve Reich]

00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.080
[Deirdre] So, companies,
they'll bid for certain blocks,

00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:34.200
and then the licenses
are awarded by the government,

00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:38.160
and sometimes they'll be certain
commitments with those licenses.

00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:42.000
So, you have to do X number of wells
by a certain point,

00:12:42.040 --> 00:12:46.120 line:20%
and then, you know,
thereafter, you have to come up with...

00:12:46.160 --> 00:12:48.600 line:20%
development plans
of how you're going to actually...

00:12:48.640 --> 00:12:51.320
what you're going to do with the licenses.

00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:54.720
So, you know, it's a fairly...
fairly straightforward process.

00:12:54.760 --> 00:12:56.760
[Music continues]

00:12:57.920 --> 00:13:00.600
[Deirdre] I think, you know,
people absolutely are very concerned

00:13:00.640 --> 00:13:03.440
about climate change,
as we are as a sector.

00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:05.880
But if we kind of knee-jerk
one way or the other,

00:13:05.920 --> 00:13:09.320
I think what'll happen
is we will see people losing their jobs.

00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:11.800
We will see communities being left behind.

00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:15.720
And that's not what we think
we should be working towards as a sector,

00:13:15.760 --> 00:13:18.800
and that's certainly not,
you know, our aim with our...

00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.480
with the road map that we put in place,
and now with the North Sea Transition Deal

00:13:22.520 --> 00:13:24.320
that we've negotiated with the Government.

00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:26.240
[Music continues]

00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:27.680
[James] In 2021,

00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:32.600
the Government and the oil industry
set up the North Sea Transition Deal,

00:13:32.640 --> 00:13:36.520
which was basically driven
by two fundamental pressures -

00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:41.440
falling oil prices and rising
public concern about the climate.

00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:43.480
[Music continues]

00:13:46.040 --> 00:13:48.360
[Holly] "'As part of the UK's shift
towards green energy

00:13:48.400 --> 00:13:51.040 line:20%
"'through our landmark
North Sea Transition Deal,

00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:53.960 line:20%
"'we are backing the decarbonization
of the oil and gas sector

00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.400 line:20%
"'to support high value jobs and safeguard
the skills necessary to develop

00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:01.000
"'new low-carbon industries
across the country,' said a spokesperson."

00:14:01.040 --> 00:14:02.520
[Music stops]

00:14:02.560 --> 00:14:06.440
I mean, that doesn't really
make sense because...

00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:09.440
Yeah, I mean, they're talking about
decarbonizing the oil and gas sector.

00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:12.160
It's like, you can't
decarbonize oil and gas.

00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:14.040
It just... Yeah, I don't know.

00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:17.320
They're saying a lot of fancy words
that really don't mean anything.

00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:20.840
[Music - "Music for Pieces of Wood"
by Steve Reich]

00:14:28.800 --> 00:14:31.000
[Tessa] In 2015,

00:14:31.040 --> 00:14:34.000 line:20%
Parliament basically passed
an amendment to the Petroleum Act

00:14:34.040 --> 00:14:36.680 line:20%
that means that the government has a duty

00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:40.760 line:20%
to maximise economic recovery
of offshore oil and gas resources.

00:14:40.800 --> 00:14:42.920
I'm not paraphrasing, that's what the...

00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:44.720
that's what the statute says.

00:14:44.760 --> 00:14:46.800
[Music continues]

00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.080
[Tessa] The UK's former Chancellor,
Philip Hammond, in 2017,

00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:57.840
he said in a speech,
"We are working with industry

00:14:57.880 --> 00:15:01.600
"to extract every drop of oil and gas
that it is economic to extract."

00:15:01.640 --> 00:15:03.640
[Music continues]

00:15:07.800 --> 00:15:12.480
We say between 10 to 20 billion
barrels of oil are still out there...

00:15:12.520 --> 00:15:16.320
- for us to get after, and...
- [Music subsides]

00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:18.920
And even that, you know...

00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.960
Yeah, so...which represents
a massive opportunity for us.

00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:25.800
[Music - "We Disappear" by Jon Hopkins]

00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:31.120
Effectively, we're living
inside an oil machine.

00:15:31.160 --> 00:15:33.200
[Music continues]

00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:48.480
[Ewan] One of the foundations
of cultures that have developed around oil

00:15:48.520 --> 00:15:53.040
is the assumption
the energy will be easy to access

00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:55.280
and freely available and cheap.

00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:57.320
[Music continues]

00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:11.720
[Music continues]

00:16:16.760 --> 00:16:20.560 line:20%
BP was very involved
in helping to build...

00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:24.080 line:20%
significant parts
of what we have in the North Sea today.

00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:28.360
The Forties Field
was one of the most significant fields.

00:16:28.400 --> 00:16:33.760
We used to operate around 22 different
fields, platforms, a few years ago.

00:16:33.800 --> 00:16:35.560
Now we operate about six.

00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:37.600
[Music continues]

00:16:50.280 --> 00:16:53.160 line:20%
We are comfortably the largest producer...

00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:55.880 line:20%
..in the North Sea.

00:16:55.920 --> 00:16:59.360
We had a number of licenses
but a relatively small company.

00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:02.640
We then did
a transformative deal with Shell,

00:17:02.680 --> 00:17:05.240
bought a big chunk of their UK business,

00:17:05.280 --> 00:17:10.440
and immediately transformed
ourselves into a very material operator.

00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.520
[Music continues]

00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:25.000
[Phil] And at the moment, we are
the most active driller in the North Sea,

00:17:25.040 --> 00:17:29.120
producing 1.6, 1.7 million barrels a day.

00:17:31.640 --> 00:17:33.640
[Music continues]

00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:44.520
[James] We go through about a million
and a half barrels of oil a day in the UK.

00:17:44.560 --> 00:17:46.560
[Music continues]

00:17:52.760 --> 00:17:55.840
[James] If we just take
one part of the North Sea,

00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.000
- the Forties pipeline system...
- [Music subsides]

00:17:58.040 --> 00:18:00.000
..it's arguably
one of the largest machines

00:18:00.040 --> 00:18:03.080
in Western Europe, or possibly the world.

00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:05.760
And that machine constitutes
all the platforms...

00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:10.480
..and all the oil wells
and all the pipeline system.

00:18:10.520 --> 00:18:17.040
It drains oil from right over
on the edge of the UK sea limit,

00:18:17.080 --> 00:18:20.200
or from the Brae field,
or the Montrose Field,

00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:23.520
through the Forties pipeline system...

00:18:26.280 --> 00:18:31.520
..until it lands on the shore
just north of Aberdeen.

00:18:31.560 --> 00:18:34.520
[Wind rushes softly]

00:18:34.560 --> 00:18:37.480
[Music - "The Gate" by Klaus Wiese]

00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:46.200
[James] And that is one continuous system

00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:49.240
running all the way across the seabed,

00:18:51.080 --> 00:18:54.200
under the fields and forests and rivers,

00:18:55.800 --> 00:18:59.120
one piece of clockwork.

00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:02.280
One big machine.

00:19:02.320 --> 00:19:04.360
And in fact, we're living with that

00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:09.880
constantly running 24 hours a day,
365 days a year.

00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:11.840
[Music continues]

00:19:30.120 --> 00:19:33.320
[James] Until finally,
it gets to the west of Edinburgh...

00:19:34.760 --> 00:19:37.160
..where it comes to Grangemouth refinery

00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:42.160
and it also goes to an oil terminal
at a place called Hound Point.

00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:45.200
[Music - "We Disappear" by Jon Hopkins]

00:19:52.280 --> 00:19:54.400
[James] At Grangemouth, it's refined,

00:19:54.440 --> 00:19:59.800
and it's turned into
a whole plethora of different products.

00:19:59.840 --> 00:20:03.360
So - petrol, aviation fuel,

00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:07.240
diesel, and even tarmac,
it's turned into there.

00:20:07.280 --> 00:20:09.280
[Music continues]

00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:24.480
[Ewan] And, you know, in some ways,

00:20:24.520 --> 00:20:26.800
it's a massively impressive
feat of engineering

00:20:26.840 --> 00:20:29.560
that oil is extracted in the North Sea...

00:20:32.760 --> 00:20:37.240
..and then transported by pipeline
into the middle of Scotland,

00:20:37.280 --> 00:20:41.680
and then distributed across
much of Scotland and the north of England.

00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:43.880
Erm...

00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:45.920
But that comes at a cost.

00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:47.960
[Atmospheric music]

00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:06.480
[Mikaela] I really wanted
to get involved with the issues

00:21:06.520 --> 00:21:08.240
that are happening right around me,

00:21:08.280 --> 00:21:11.040
'cause it's important that we are
involved in the things that happen

00:21:11.080 --> 00:21:14.280
right around us, as well as the stuff
that's going on globally,

00:21:14.320 --> 00:21:16.680
'cause it's all really connected.

00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:24.760
As a medic, I care so deeply about health,

00:21:24.800 --> 00:21:26.640 line:20%
and I think that from this lens of health,

00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:30.000 line:20%
we can actually achieve a climate just,
or a better world for all of us,

00:21:30.040 --> 00:21:33.120 line:20%
because when we realise
that health, well, that...

00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:35.400
the fossil fuel industry
is impacting health in different ways

00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:37.280
and pollution in the air
is impacting health

00:21:37.320 --> 00:21:41.520
and therefore, if we stop this polluting,
we also increase health.

00:21:41.560 --> 00:21:44.880
I have lived experience
of this plant here.

00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:47.120
This plant stole my oxygen...

00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:48.920
[Sustained hiss]

00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:52.840
[Speaker] ..and it made me suffocate,
suffocate so much...

00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:56.000
[Speaker's voice fades, hiss continues]

00:21:56.040 --> 00:21:58.640
"The Mossmorran Natural
Gas Liquids (NGL) plant

00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:02.400
"is part of the northern North Sea Brent
oil and gas field system,

00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:06.040
"and it is located on the outskirts
of Cowdenbeath, Scotland."

00:22:06.080 --> 00:22:09.640
[Mechanical rumbling, hissing]

00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:12.360
[Mikaela] There's so much flaring
from this gas plant

00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:15.280
that it means that local people,
like, can't sleep well

00:22:15.320 --> 00:22:17.320
because of how bright it is.

00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:20.920
The fact that the impact of Mossmorran
and what's happening there

00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:23.160
and the impact
of the North Sea oil and gas industry

00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:24.920
on our health and on our communities

00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:28.880
only serves to allow these things
to continue and to continue to cause harm.

00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:32.640
So, I think that that's why
we need to draw these connections.

00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:34.280
[Muffled, shifting hum]

00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:37.320
[Hum continues;
Percussive house music]

00:22:37.360 --> 00:22:40.400
[Music continues;
Indistinct chatter]

00:22:45.120 --> 00:22:47.520
[Music continues]

00:22:47.560 --> 00:22:49.600
[Mikaela] There's a new
oil and gas project

00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:52.720
which is set to be licensed
in the Cambo Field,

00:22:52.760 --> 00:22:55.760
which is in the North Sea, it's one
of the biggest North Sea oil fields

00:22:55.800 --> 00:22:58.040
that's ever been found.

00:22:58.080 --> 00:23:01.680
So, we're here to point out the hypocrisy
of approving this new field

00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:04.640
just after the IEA have said
that we cannot approve

00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:06.760
and we cannot invest in new oil and gas.

00:23:06.800 --> 00:23:09.880
[Protestors, chanting]
No new oil - keep the carbon in the soil...

00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:13.960
[Mikaela] The International Energy Agency,
they are very conservative usually,

00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.200
so the fact that they're saying,
"No new oil and gas" is a very big deal.

00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:22.640
A lot of this new climate policy
that's being put in,

00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:24.960
it feels very performative
because a lot of the actions

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:27.680
that are happening are still protecting
the oil and gas industry.

00:23:33.040 --> 00:23:36.400
It does come into question how much
we are, like, living in a democracy.

00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:38.840
[Music]

00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:41.680
[Mikaela] How much our politicians
are actually representing us

00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:44.120
or how much they are
representing big business.

00:23:49.560 --> 00:23:51.560
[Music continues]

00:23:57.520 --> 00:24:00.600
[Deirdre] The government came out
and said, "Yes, licensing will continue,

00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:05.720
"because we do need oil and gas activity
to continue in the basin

00:24:05.760 --> 00:24:10.040
"if we are to satisfy the demand
that we know is going to continue."

00:24:10.080 --> 00:24:13.000
So, you know, better
to have it with your home-grown...

00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:17.800
..sector on your doorstep,
supporting the jobs,

00:24:17.840 --> 00:24:19.560
not offshoring your emissions,

00:24:19.600 --> 00:24:22.520
not having to import
the gap that would emerge

00:24:22.560 --> 00:24:24.800
if you didn't continue to produce.

00:24:24.840 --> 00:24:26.880
[Indistinct chatter]

00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:31.840
[Deirdre] What they wanted to make sure
was that as they go forward,

00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:35.000
and that for every licensing round
that does come up,

00:24:35.040 --> 00:24:38.400
that it is still in line
with the Paris commitments

00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.080
and their net zero targets of 2050.

00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:51.960
We can point to £350 billion
in taxes paid for production,

00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:56.760
and that doesn't even take into account
the associated supply chain taxes

00:24:56.800 --> 00:24:59.480
that are generated, and the jobs
that are generated off that.

00:24:59.520 --> 00:25:02.920
[Music - "We Disappear" by Jon Hopkins]

00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:04.720
[James] By the mid-1980s,

00:25:04.760 --> 00:25:08.160
the British Exchequer was receiving

00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:13.240
a huge amount of cash
from revenue from the North Sea.

00:25:15.320 --> 00:25:18.440
Which, of course, was used to pay,
for everything -

00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:21.360
roads, schools, and so on.

00:25:21.400 --> 00:25:23.440
[Music continues]

00:25:25.120 --> 00:25:28.080
[James] In London,
the global finance centre for oil

00:25:28.120 --> 00:25:31.680
had begun to be developed since the '50s.

00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:35.480
This flourished on the back
of the UK North Sea oil as well.

00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:40.200
It became an engine,
driving forward the UK finance sector.

00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:42.280
[Music continues]

00:25:48.280 --> 00:25:53.120
[James] And that cash flowed
into the pension system as well.

00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:57.760
Increasingly, UK pensions became linked
to shares in BP and Shell.

00:25:57.800 --> 00:25:59.560
Indeed, by the 2000s,

00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:05.200
about 30% of any major portfolio
of a pension fund

00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:08.040
was in these two companies combined.

00:26:08.080 --> 00:26:10.080
[Music continues]

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.760
It's not just about the jobs
in the industry,

00:26:22.800 --> 00:26:25.000
it's the spin-off of that wealth.

00:26:25.040 --> 00:26:26.960
[Music continues]

00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.720
[Phil] People need to shop,
people go out, people eat,

00:26:29.760 --> 00:26:34.320
people spend money, people buy things.
That's how the cascade works.

00:26:34.360 --> 00:26:36.360
[Music continues]

00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:50.600
[Steve] The market -
let's say the London Stock Exchange -

00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:53.440
the markets are considered
to be amoral because they are,

00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:55.080
they're not a person.

00:26:55.120 --> 00:26:59.640
The market is a collection of thousands
of activities happening, and...

00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:02.760 line:20%
by individual investors making
decisions on behalf of other people.

00:27:02.800 --> 00:27:06.280 line:20%
It's considered amoral
because it's a machine.

00:27:06.320 --> 00:27:08.600 line:20%
- [Music subsides]
- It's not an individual.

00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:10.720
Amoral is different to immoral, remember.

00:27:10.760 --> 00:27:12.800
[Traffic hums]

00:27:15.360 --> 00:27:17.600
[Steve] If you're an investor, return
on equity is the thing that matters.

00:27:17.640 --> 00:27:20.520
It tells you how profitable a business is.

00:27:20.560 --> 00:27:22.680
A return on equity
for the fossil fuel sector -

00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.120
20 years ago, double digits.

00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:28.760
Absolutely, 100% the norm.

00:27:28.800 --> 00:27:35.000
Today, return on equity
is struggling to get to 5% and 6%.

00:27:35.040 --> 00:27:39.440
Some of the fossil fuel firms,
they're in what's called a secular decline

00:27:39.480 --> 00:27:40.800
arguably already.

00:27:40.840 --> 00:27:42.640 line:20%
North Sea oil is a commodity,

00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:48.200 line:20%
it's an asset against which an enormous
amount of debt has been leveraged.

00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:52.160
And the question is,
does the asset maintain its value?

00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:54.840
Does oil maintain its price?

00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:59.600
And that really matters,
because if it fails to maintain its value,

00:27:59.640 --> 00:28:03.880
then the debt leveraged against that asset
is going to become un-payable.

00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:05.960
[Indistinct chatter]

00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:12.280
[Steve] Conversely,
the return on equity for offshore wind...

00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:15.440
..is about 11%.

00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:19.280
Onshore wind, about 10%,

00:28:19.320 --> 00:28:22.040
and onshore solar about 9%.

00:28:24.520 --> 00:28:27.640
So, you're already generating
more return on equity

00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:31.160
from putting your capital into
the renewable energy space.

00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:34.640
[Music - "Music for Pieces of Wood"
by Steve Reich]

00:28:34.680 --> 00:28:36.760
[Steve] The question is,
can it take as much capital

00:28:36.800 --> 00:28:38.880
as is currently in the fossil fuel sector?

00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:44.720
Those who own investments in North Sea oil

00:28:44.760 --> 00:28:50.280
have to believe that it will continue
and maintain its value as an asset.

00:28:50.320 --> 00:28:52.000
- [Music continues]
- And the question is,

00:28:52.040 --> 00:28:55.440
when does the value of the asset fall?

00:28:57.840 --> 00:29:01.080
[Music continues;
Electronic beeping]

00:29:03.960 --> 00:29:06.800
[Ann] And when the price of oil falls...

00:29:06.840 --> 00:29:09.120
then oil becomes a "stranded asset".

00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:13.640
[Music continues]

00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:19.760
[Ann] We have to reimagine the economy.

00:29:19.800 --> 00:29:22.520
The way we've constructed it right now

00:29:22.560 --> 00:29:26.880
means that it's incredibly unstable,
and prone to crashes.

00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:28.960
[Music continues]

00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:33.680
[Music continues]

00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:42.080
[Music continues]

00:29:42.120 --> 00:29:45.920
[Steve] If you look
at the London Stock Exchange,

00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:48.440
and you look at
the implied temperature change

00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:49.920
of all the companies
that are listed there,

00:29:49.960 --> 00:29:52.120
particularly the oil and gas companies,

00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.800
we have three and a half degrees of change
embedded in the London Stock Exchange.

00:29:56.840 --> 00:29:59.200
[Ambient street noise]

00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:02.520
[Steve] It's one of the worst
exchanges in the world,

00:30:02.560 --> 00:30:05.560
because it's where many of the world's
largest oil and gas companies list.

00:30:06.680 --> 00:30:10.640
Which means that people's pension,
savings and investments in the UK

00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:15.320
are actually invested in financing
a future that no-one wants to see,

00:30:15.360 --> 00:30:16.840
but no-one really realises.

00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:20.000
[Indistinct chatter;
Reverse indicator beeps]

00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:27.000
[Steve] People tend
to be ignorant about money

00:30:27.040 --> 00:30:28.840
because finance is quite complicated.

00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:32.840
And because it's been functioning,
by and large, reasonably well for so long,

00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:35.120
there's been this paternalistic culture

00:30:35.160 --> 00:30:38.480
that's enabled people to just, "It's okay,
don't worry, it's all working."

00:30:38.520 --> 00:30:40.760
Whereas actually, it's not.

00:30:40.800 --> 00:30:43.800
We need to now, rapidly,

00:30:43.840 --> 00:30:47.480
raise our collective understanding
of banking, insurance and investment -

00:30:47.520 --> 00:30:51.840
particularly investment - and particularly
where you own companies

00:30:51.880 --> 00:30:56.240
that are undermining the future
that we wish to bequeath to our children.

00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:03.480
[Laid-back jazz music]

00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:19.880
[Steve] Angel Gurría, when he was
the secretary general of the OECD,

00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:22.560
talked about carbon entanglement.

00:31:24.440 --> 00:31:31.120
What he meant was when you had ministers
from the Environmental Department...

00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:36.760
coming to UN meetings,
and pledging to stop certain activity -

00:31:36.800 --> 00:31:38.840
let's say drilling...

00:31:42.360 --> 00:31:44.080
..and then they would return home

00:31:44.120 --> 00:31:47.200
to find that
the Chancellor of their Exchequer

00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:50.320
wasn't prepared to stop that...

00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:56.880
..because the amount of revenue
that the Exchequer received

00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:00.520
through the tax that was charged
on the fossil fuel when it was sold...

00:32:02.760 --> 00:32:05.520
..that that level of entanglement
of economic activity

00:32:05.560 --> 00:32:08.680
meant that we couldn't simply stop
the thing that needed to stop...

00:32:11.640 --> 00:32:14.520
..because in stopping that...

00:32:14.560 --> 00:32:16.800
all other things would stop, too.

00:32:16.840 --> 00:32:18.840
[Music continues]

00:32:22.840 --> 00:32:25.320
[Music concludes, resonates]

00:32:25.360 --> 00:32:27.840
[Water laps gently]

00:32:30.960 --> 00:32:32.600 line:20%
I think...

00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:38.160 line:20%
that my predictions beyond 2050

00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:39.880
are difficult to make.

00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:46.720
[Faint, reverberant hum]

00:32:46.760 --> 00:32:49.400
[David] And the reason I say this
is because I don't believe

00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:54.080
the global economy
will be functioning the way it is today

00:32:54.120 --> 00:32:56.840
unless we make big, big changes

00:32:56.880 --> 00:32:59.960
over the next five to ten years

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.840
to manage the disaster
that's just around the corner.

00:33:03.880 --> 00:33:05.880
[Hum continues]

00:33:08.800 --> 00:33:14.240
A series of crises that will
begin unfolding...after mid-century

00:33:14.280 --> 00:33:17.040
is going to mean
the end of the global economy.

00:33:17.080 --> 00:33:19.120
[Hum continues]

00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:26.320
I believe that
what we do over the next five years -

00:33:26.360 --> 00:33:30.080
and the "we" in that sentence
refers to humanity -

00:33:30.120 --> 00:33:33.960
will determine the future of humanity
for the next millennium.

00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:38.480
[Hum continues; birds]

00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:42.160
[Car approaches]

00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:51.600
[Holly] I think people
will look back on this era of oil

00:33:51.640 --> 00:33:54.720
and just think
about how ridiculous it was.

00:33:56.320 --> 00:33:58.800
How could you know
about such a massive issue

00:33:58.840 --> 00:34:01.680
and still worry more about profit?

00:34:01.720 --> 00:34:03.720
It feels a bit surreal, in a way.

00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:25.280
[Kevin] The whole issue of climate change
became quite relevant,

00:34:25.320 --> 00:34:27.160
and there was
a lot of discussions around that

00:34:27.200 --> 00:34:29.200
in the late '80s and the early '90s.

00:34:29.240 --> 00:34:30.920
And it wasn't something
I knew a lot about,

00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:32.520
so I decided to go back to university

00:34:32.560 --> 00:34:35.080
to try to find something out
about climate change.

00:34:35.120 --> 00:34:38.120
And so, I decided, in the end,
to leave the oil industry.

00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:49.120
When we burn oil and gas,
or indeed any fossil fuel,

00:34:49.160 --> 00:34:52.840
it's made up of two principal elements.
One's carbon, and one's hydrogen.

00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:56.120
[Ambient street noise;
Wind rushes softly]

00:34:56.160 --> 00:34:59.680
[Kevin] That carbon combusts
with the oxygen in the atmosphere.

00:35:06.360 --> 00:35:08.400
[Pigeon coos]

00:35:08.440 --> 00:35:13.280
[Kevin] And now, 'cause we're burning
all of this fossil fuel so rapidly -

00:35:13.320 --> 00:35:17.040
remember, these are fossil fuels
that were laid down by trees

00:35:17.080 --> 00:35:20.120
and by all the plants
over millions of years.

00:35:20.160 --> 00:35:22.520
[Vehicles pass]

00:35:22.560 --> 00:35:25.400
[Kevin] We're taking them all
out of the ground, and almost overnight,

00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:28.040
releasing all of that carbon
back out into the atmosphere

00:35:28.080 --> 00:35:31.880
as carbon dioxide through the combustion
in our car engines and our power stations.

00:35:33.400 --> 00:35:35.400
[Traffic hums]

00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:44.440
[Wind rushes softly]

00:35:55.160 --> 00:35:58.880
[Ann] So, very, very deliberately,
as part of market ideology,

00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:03.680
is the idea that we can't allow
democracies or governments or states

00:36:03.720 --> 00:36:09.880
to regulate or to manage the production
and the extraction of finite assets.

00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:13.520
This has to be left to something
called "the invisible hand".

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:22.000
[Foreboding music]

00:36:34.160 --> 00:36:37.000
[Ann] And if the invisible hand decides

00:36:37.040 --> 00:36:39.080
that in a world of climate breakdown

00:36:39.120 --> 00:36:42.240
it's necessary
to churn out more fossil fuels,

00:36:42.280 --> 00:36:47.720
then the invisible hand will actually
disadvantage the public and Governments,

00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:50.280
and indeed, that is what is happening now.

00:36:51.880 --> 00:36:53.880
[Music continues]

00:37:02.080 --> 00:37:04.080
[Music continues]

00:37:13.160 --> 00:37:17.120
[James] Once the crude gets
to a refinery like Grangemouth...

00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:25.480
..it's made into lots of things
like petrol, aviation fuel and tarmac.

00:37:25.520 --> 00:37:29.320
It's also made into
this substance called naphtha,

00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:31.760
which is the sort of...

00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:35.640
the basis that you would use
to make plastics.

00:37:35.680 --> 00:37:37.680
[Music continues]

00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:42.400
[Music continues]

00:37:44.280 --> 00:37:47.880
[James] You'd then put it
into a petrochemical plant,

00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:51.520
and you'd make other stuff out of it,
such as ethylene.

00:37:51.560 --> 00:37:54.760
And then that ethylene is made
into other stuff, such as PVC.

00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:00.680
And that is plastic as we know it.

00:38:00.720 --> 00:38:02.520
[Music continues]

00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:13.520
[James] When you burn a gallon of petrol,

00:38:13.560 --> 00:38:15.560
it goes into the atmosphere
pretty quickly.

00:38:15.600 --> 00:38:17.440
When you turned it into a plastic toy,

00:38:17.480 --> 00:38:19.400
and that's used for a bit
and then thrown away,

00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:23.080
it stays in a landfill
for many hundreds of years.

00:38:24.640 --> 00:38:27.400
Possibly thousands of years.

00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:30.280
[Music continues]

00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:32.640
[Music builds]

00:38:36.520 --> 00:38:38.760
[James] And then there are
tiny bits of plastic,

00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:42.080
microplastics, which are in everything.

00:38:42.120 --> 00:38:45.400
The water from the tap,
in rivers and in seas,

00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:48.600
and even in our human tissues and organs,

00:38:48.640 --> 00:38:51.360
and in the tissues of other animals.

00:38:54.520 --> 00:38:56.960
And all those bits of plastic,

00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:00.880
at some point, came out of an oil well.

00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:02.920
[Music continues]

00:39:09.120 --> 00:39:11.120
[James] And it wasn't till recently -

00:39:11.160 --> 00:39:14.720
plastics weren't really being used
until the '60s in any major way.

00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:16.760
[Music softens]

00:39:31.720 --> 00:39:34.040
[Music continues;
Indistinct chatter]

00:39:34.080 --> 00:39:36.080
[Music concludes]

00:39:38.720 --> 00:39:41.160
Since signing the Paris Agreement in 2016,

00:39:41.200 --> 00:39:44.960
the UK government has given
£4 billion of public money

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:46.920
to North Sea oil and gas companies.

00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:50.200
That is a huge amount of money
that should be being used for public good,

00:39:50.240 --> 00:39:54.280
and is instead propping up
these big, polluting, harmful companies.

00:39:55.640 --> 00:39:59.720
I heard about a case that was happening,
that was taking the UK government to court

00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:02.120
around these subsidies
and around the new policy

00:40:02.160 --> 00:40:04.400
that had been created
by the Oil and Gas Authority...

00:40:05.640 --> 00:40:10.040
..which basically allows for
the promotion of oil and gas production.

00:40:11.840 --> 00:40:14.600
I feel like I got to a point
where I was so desperate about,

00:40:14.640 --> 00:40:16.520
"What should I do? What can I do?"

00:40:17.800 --> 00:40:19.160
[Noisy traffic]

00:40:19.200 --> 00:40:21.160
[Mikaela] I'm taking
the UK government to court

00:40:21.200 --> 00:40:24.480
to pull the plug on public payments
for big polluters.

00:40:25.720 --> 00:40:29.440
[Emeka] The world is moving away from...

00:40:29.480 --> 00:40:32.120
from an oil and gas economy
to a lower carbon economy.

00:40:32.160 --> 00:40:35.360
So, we at BP, intend to be
part of that transition.

00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:36.920
So, I think if we...

00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:41.440
if we didn't make the move,
we wouldn't exist.

00:40:41.480 --> 00:40:46.040
We will be taking carbon emissions
from heavy industry

00:40:46.080 --> 00:40:48.040
that is based in the Teesside area

00:40:48.080 --> 00:40:51.920
and sequestering that
in reservoirs offshore.

00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:55.680
We'll be using the same
very similar expertise to what we've used

00:40:55.720 --> 00:40:59.880
with our oil and gas production
to capture that material and inject it.

00:41:02.520 --> 00:41:04.800
Yeah, the oil industry
has traditionally been full of people

00:41:04.840 --> 00:41:06.680
who love solving problems.

00:41:06.720 --> 00:41:08.800
[Music - "Venus in Tweeds"
by Shooglenifty]

00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:10.280
[Phil] That's why people become engineers,

00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:12.080
'cause they want to build big things
and do stuff.

00:41:12.120 --> 00:41:14.320
And that doesn't matter
whether you're a woman or a man,

00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:17.400
it's that challenge in your mind
that you love.

00:41:17.440 --> 00:41:20.120
And this is another challenge.

00:41:20.160 --> 00:41:22.000
[Music continues]

00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:27.960
In 20 years' time,
I would love, in the UK,

00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:30.040
that we're still producing
at the same level...

00:41:30.080 --> 00:41:33.080
the same level of hydrocarbons
that we're producing now

00:41:33.120 --> 00:41:35.760
- but with a net zero footprint.
- [Music subsides]

00:41:35.800 --> 00:41:38.760 line:20%
So, we often hear this language,
now, particularly, of "net zero."

00:41:38.800 --> 00:41:42.200 line:20%
So, what really is it?
We need to sort of understand what it is.

00:41:42.240 --> 00:41:44.400
And actually, from a purely scientific
point of view,

00:41:44.440 --> 00:41:46.480
it makes some sort of sense.

00:41:46.520 --> 00:41:48.760
The idea is that we have to get to a point

00:41:48.800 --> 00:41:50.920
where the emissions
we put into the atmosphere

00:41:50.960 --> 00:41:54.000
are balanced by those
that are removed from the atmosphere.

00:41:54.040 --> 00:41:57.440
So, what we put out
is balanced by what is taken back in.

00:41:57.480 --> 00:41:59.480
And we then give it, so, like, a year.

00:41:59.520 --> 00:42:02.160
So, at some point in the future,
always a long way away.

00:42:02.200 --> 00:42:04.520
So, something like 2050.

00:42:04.560 --> 00:42:07.080
In 2050, we'll have this net zero,

00:42:07.120 --> 00:42:09.840
where we'll have found a way
to balance our emissions,

00:42:09.880 --> 00:42:11.640
which are still quite significant then,

00:42:11.680 --> 00:42:15.240
with sinks that absorb the carbon dioxide
back into the atmosphere.

00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:19.200
[Plane engine hums overhead]

00:42:19.240 --> 00:42:22.280
We are setting up a carbon capture business,

00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:26.720
which may ultimately
take some of the CO2 that we produce

00:42:26.760 --> 00:42:28.560
from the hydrogen process,

00:42:28.600 --> 00:42:30.960
and then we will store that carbon

00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:34.480
in underground reservoirs,
depleted gas fields,

00:42:34.520 --> 00:42:36.640
where we've produced
the hydrocarbons from there.

00:42:36.680 --> 00:42:39.480
We know the history,
we know the structure.

00:42:39.520 --> 00:42:43.920
Actually, the UK could be in a really
robust position for carbon capture,

00:42:43.960 --> 00:42:46.840
with the spin-offs for, potentially,
supply chain benefits,

00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:50.200
exporting some of those skills
to other countries.

00:42:50.240 --> 00:42:52.560
We have very few working examples

00:42:52.600 --> 00:42:56.400
of carbon capture storage
on power stations.

00:42:56.440 --> 00:43:00.360
I've got colleagues that have been
working on this for 20 years.

00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:02.400
[Wind rushes]

00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:20.720
There is currently no operational
carbon capture and storage, CCS, capacity

00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:22.600
in the UK or Europe.

00:43:22.640 --> 00:43:26.120
All estimates are that there won't be
in the next decade,

00:43:26.160 --> 00:43:28.440
and the next decade really matters.

00:43:28.480 --> 00:43:33.280
So, it's absolutely no excuse to continue
expanding oil and gas infrastructure

00:43:33.320 --> 00:43:37.040
on the assumption that we can bring down
those emissions using that technology

00:43:37.080 --> 00:43:39.680
in the next few years.
It's just...it's not going to happen.

00:43:39.720 --> 00:43:43.840
We will maintain some level of oil
and gas production over time,

00:43:43.880 --> 00:43:46.480
but we're hugely ramping up
our investments

00:43:46.520 --> 00:43:49.480
in non-oil and gas forms
of energy as well.

00:43:51.600 --> 00:43:56.160
We're about to get into
a ScotWind leasing process that,

00:43:56.200 --> 00:44:00.480
the process itself, to actually
acquire the leases, takes time.

00:44:00.520 --> 00:44:03.800
From the point at which
wind leases are acquired

00:44:03.840 --> 00:44:06.280
to when wind farms are installed,

00:44:06.320 --> 00:44:08.720
it's only a period of about ten years.

00:44:09.880 --> 00:44:14.360
We will do everything we can to compress
that period and make it faster,

00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:19.800
but it's almost just, the realities
of what happens is...

00:44:19.840 --> 00:44:24.000
What we're talking about is changing
the infrastructure of the world.

00:44:24.040 --> 00:44:25.360
That takes time.

00:44:25.400 --> 00:44:27.440
[Wind rushes]

00:44:30.200 --> 00:44:32.960
[Percussive house music]

00:44:40.680 --> 00:44:42.920
For decades,

00:44:42.960 --> 00:44:46.160
the world has been built on
a hydrocarbon-based infrastructure.

00:44:46.200 --> 00:44:48.160
[Music continues]

00:44:48.200 --> 00:44:50.840
[Emeka] Maybe a good analogy
would be, it's almost like

00:44:50.880 --> 00:44:53.880
replacing all the veins in the human body.

00:44:53.920 --> 00:44:55.920
[Music continues]

00:45:06.120 --> 00:45:09.840
I guess we have an addiction
to oil and gas in...

00:45:09.880 --> 00:45:11.080
in our society.

00:45:11.120 --> 00:45:15.440
And that's why we need to work
thoughtfully as to how we move forward.

00:45:17.160 --> 00:45:19.120
Just to stop it
for the sake of stopping it

00:45:19.160 --> 00:45:22.200
isn't going to stop the demand
that's associated with it.

00:45:22.240 --> 00:45:24.440
[Music continues]

00:45:24.480 --> 00:45:30.080
[Jake] Everything we use
has an oil base, virtually, in it.

00:45:30.120 --> 00:45:31.880
[Music continues]

00:45:35.760 --> 00:45:39.920
[Jake] You know, from your shoes,
to the tyres on the electric car,

00:45:39.960 --> 00:45:45.720
the iPhone. I think the iPhone's got about
six litres of oil used in its manufacture.

00:45:45.760 --> 00:45:50.120
Your waterproof jacket,
which we all need here in Scotland,

00:45:50.160 --> 00:45:53.600
there's hydrocarbon in it!
You know, you're going to need it.

00:45:53.640 --> 00:45:56.720
So, having a go at...

00:45:56.760 --> 00:45:59.680
- North Sea oil and gas production...
- [Music subsides]

00:45:59.720 --> 00:46:01.320
..in its...

00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:03.240
in itself, I think, is unfair.

00:46:03.280 --> 00:46:06.480
[Holly] People in the oil industry,
and just people in general,

00:46:06.520 --> 00:46:11.400
have a go at environmentalists for,
you know, using phones and buying shoes.

00:46:11.440 --> 00:46:12.880
If people think you're a hypocrite,

00:46:12.920 --> 00:46:15.480
they're not going to listen
to what you have to say.

00:46:15.520 --> 00:46:18.520
And, I mean, that is exactly
what the fossil fuel industry wants.

00:46:18.560 --> 00:46:22.760
It takes the pressure off of them
and onto everyday people

00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:26.120
whose individual actions in the grand
scheme of things is tiny

00:46:26.160 --> 00:46:31.920
compared to the actions
of massive fossil fuel corporations.

00:46:31.960 --> 00:46:35.080
We need to start talking about this
as a systemic problem

00:46:35.120 --> 00:46:36.960
and not as an individual problem.

00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:40.360
[Wind rushes softly]

00:46:40.400 --> 00:46:43.680
[Mikaela] There's no real consumer choice
around the fact that we live

00:46:43.720 --> 00:46:46.920
in an energy infrastructure that means
we have to use oil and gas currently

00:46:46.960 --> 00:46:50.000
because other alternatives
are not being promoted.

00:46:52.840 --> 00:46:56.600
[Music - "Music for Pieces of Wood"
by Steve Reich]

00:46:56.640 --> 00:46:59.880
- [Girl] This is not made of oil.
- [Girl 2] This is not made of oil.

00:46:59.920 --> 00:47:01.560
[Girl 3] This is not made of oil.

00:47:01.600 --> 00:47:03.280
[Girl 2] This is not made of oil.

00:47:03.320 --> 00:47:06.880
- [Girl 3] This is not made of oil.
- [Girl] This is not made of oil.

00:47:06.920 --> 00:47:10.760
I think we've been hearing
that the oil and gas company

00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:15.120
is the answer to our future
energy needs for decades.

00:47:15.160 --> 00:47:19.480
And the fact is that their investment
in renewable energy

00:47:19.520 --> 00:47:24.520
is a vanishingly small proportion
of their overall investment.

00:47:24.560 --> 00:47:27.160
The Oil and Gas Authority,
if you open up their website,

00:47:27.200 --> 00:47:29.640
or indeed, go to their Twitter account,
that's what they say.

00:47:29.680 --> 00:47:32.800
"We're there to maximise oil
and gas production

00:47:32.840 --> 00:47:34.880
"and to help the government
meet its net zero."

00:47:34.920 --> 00:47:37.320
That demonstrates to me,
absolutely clearly,

00:47:37.360 --> 00:47:41.400
how net zero is basically a front for

00:47:41.440 --> 00:47:44.160
an incrementally green-washed
business as usual.

00:47:44.200 --> 00:47:46.040
It delays any real action.

00:47:46.080 --> 00:47:50.080
It relies on technologies that are...
either highly speculative

00:47:50.120 --> 00:47:52.720
or in only very small pilot schemes
at the moment

00:47:52.760 --> 00:47:54.960
to remove carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere -

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:58.440
hundreds of billions of tonnes
of carbon dioxide, not small quantities -

00:47:58.480 --> 00:48:01.160
out in the future. And when I say,
"We're going to remove it,"

00:48:01.200 --> 00:48:03.800
not us - our children
and our children's children.

00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:05.880
[Birdsong]

00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:16.680
[Birds squawks in distance]

00:48:16.720 --> 00:48:18.680
[Holly] There are
several parts of Fort William

00:48:18.720 --> 00:48:20.760
that are threatened with flooding,

00:48:20.800 --> 00:48:22.400
and this will include the main roads

00:48:22.440 --> 00:48:25.960
and the main rail lines
between Fort William and Glasgow.

00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:31.640
That means that there's going to be
a transport problem in the future,

00:48:31.680 --> 00:48:35.280
and food supplies
might cut out at some points.

00:48:41.040 --> 00:48:43.040
[Birdsong continues]

00:48:44.880 --> 00:48:47.800
[Girl] In 50 years' time,
if nothing changes,

00:48:47.840 --> 00:48:50.880
the water levels could rise to 40cm.

00:48:52.440 --> 00:48:54.560 line:20%
Already this winter,

00:48:54.600 --> 00:48:59.840 line:20%
it flooded right up to where I'm sitting,
and the road had to be closed.

00:49:02.040 --> 00:49:04.800
The road up to the high school
could be closed.

00:49:04.840 --> 00:49:07.600
How could the children get to school?

00:49:23.400 --> 00:49:25.120
[Waves crash]

00:49:25.160 --> 00:49:29.280
[Toby] Well, in 50 years' time,
I'm worried that there won't be

00:49:29.320 --> 00:49:32.440
the same type of wildlife
as there is right now

00:49:32.480 --> 00:49:34.280
because of climate change.

00:49:34.320 --> 00:49:39.040
Ullapool's, like, a fishing village.
So, then if the smaller fish die out,

00:49:39.080 --> 00:49:41.520
then the bigger fish
won't have anything to eat.

00:49:41.560 --> 00:49:45.200
And this is kind of, like,
the same as puffins.

00:49:45.240 --> 00:49:47.680
They live around
the coastal areas of Scotland.

00:49:49.480 --> 00:49:51.360
They could be affected by climate change

00:49:51.400 --> 00:49:54.720
if the temperature rises
and the sea levels rise,

00:49:54.760 --> 00:49:57.240
'cause then that would
make the fish swim away

00:49:57.280 --> 00:50:00.440
to places that are cooler, further north.

00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:05.480
Puffins will die of starvation
if they don't sort something out soon.

00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:08.960
[Waves lap gently]

00:50:10.320 --> 00:50:12.320
[Bird calls in distance]

00:50:14.320 --> 00:50:16.280
[Melancholy music]

00:50:16.320 --> 00:50:18.680
[Music continues]

00:50:18.720 --> 00:50:21.240
[Rachael] This bridge
could be completely underwater.

00:50:22.520 --> 00:50:26.200
The SEC behind this,
where they're holding COP26,

00:50:26.240 --> 00:50:28.000
that's going to be completely destroyed.

00:50:29.240 --> 00:50:32.200 line:20%
There are so many things
happening in the world right now that...

00:50:33.920 --> 00:50:36.480 line:20%
..I'm honestly not sure I could face

00:50:36.520 --> 00:50:38.600
bringing even, like,
a child into the world.

00:50:38.640 --> 00:50:40.680
[Music continues]

00:50:44.520 --> 00:50:46.920
[Rachael] If we don't make the change now,
we never will.

00:50:49.440 --> 00:50:52.800
It's actually so much closer than a lot
of us are actually willing to believe.

00:50:54.320 --> 00:50:56.920
And that's...quite terrifying.

00:50:56.960 --> 00:50:58.960
[Music continues]

00:51:04.520 --> 00:51:06.520
[Music subsides]

00:51:06.560 --> 00:51:08.400
[Holly] Adults have made
their life choices.

00:51:08.440 --> 00:51:10.360
They've got their career
and they've, you know,

00:51:10.400 --> 00:51:13.000
sometimes they have a family,
they have a house.

00:51:13.040 --> 00:51:16.320
And it's not going to impact

00:51:16.360 --> 00:51:18.320
their lives in the same way
it will impact us

00:51:18.360 --> 00:51:22.320
because, you know, what career
am I going to have based off of this,

00:51:22.360 --> 00:51:24.000
and where am I going to live?

00:51:24.040 --> 00:51:25.760
[Traffic hums]

00:51:25.800 --> 00:51:29.320
[Holly] And what food
am I going to be able to eat?

00:51:32.040 --> 00:51:34.840
[Bus rattles, hums]

00:51:34.880 --> 00:51:37.120
[Birds squawk in distance]

00:51:37.160 --> 00:51:39.200
[Squawking continues]

00:51:42.040 --> 00:51:44.840
[Dylan] We're going to have several metres
of sea level rise already locked in.

00:51:44.880 --> 00:51:48.920
And since Edinburgh is on the coast,
that poses a pretty severe threat

00:51:48.960 --> 00:51:51.120
to lots of areas around here.

00:51:51.160 --> 00:51:53.040
[Rabi] Everything would be underwater.

00:51:53.080 --> 00:51:55.320
The Ocean Terminal mall,

00:51:55.360 --> 00:51:58.880
the pub at the end of the road
over there, everything.

00:51:58.920 --> 00:52:01.400
[Dylan] It's not even
that far in the future.

00:52:01.440 --> 00:52:04.480
Like, I'll maybe just be
starting retirement.

00:52:04.520 --> 00:52:07.400
Even if we feel like
it's in the distant future,

00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:10.520
areas I go all the time will not be...

00:52:10.560 --> 00:52:12.600
they won't even exist anymore.

00:52:12.640 --> 00:52:15.960
[Engine revs, seagulls squawk in distance]

00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:21.040
[Music - "The Gate" by Klaus Wiese]

00:52:25.480 --> 00:52:27.640
[Protestors, chanting]
ExxonMobil, BP, Shell,

00:52:27.680 --> 00:52:30.240
take your oil and go to hell.

00:52:30.280 --> 00:52:32.680
ExxonMobil, BP, Shell,

00:52:32.720 --> 00:52:35.040
take your oil and go to hell.

00:52:35.080 --> 00:52:37.280
ExxonMobil, BP, Shell,

00:52:37.320 --> 00:52:40.280
- take your oil...
- [Chanting fades, music continues]

00:52:42.120 --> 00:52:44.880
[David] The things
that I am most worried about

00:52:44.920 --> 00:52:51.440
is the future for children aged 15,
children aged 3, 4, 5.

00:52:51.480 --> 00:52:53.480
[Music continues]

00:52:58.880 --> 00:53:03.120
[David] They will presumably expect
to be alive by the end of the century...

00:53:04.680 --> 00:53:06.560
..and at the moment,

00:53:06.600 --> 00:53:10.840
that is really not looking like
the sort of place you'd like to live in.

00:53:10.880 --> 00:53:12.880
[Music continues]

00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:21.320
[David] So, what we are
seeing is a major disturbance

00:53:21.360 --> 00:53:23.000
in the global weather system,

00:53:23.040 --> 00:53:27.880
but much more serious
is what is happening to that ice.

00:53:27.920 --> 00:53:32.120
On Greenland, as the ice melts,
it enters the ocean,

00:53:32.160 --> 00:53:35.880
and there's enough ice there
that when it's all melted,

00:53:35.920 --> 00:53:43.480
sea levels globally will rise
by an average of 7.5 metres, 24 feet.

00:53:43.520 --> 00:53:48.080
And we will not recognise the world
when that has happened.

00:53:48.120 --> 00:53:50.120
[Music continues]

00:53:53.880 --> 00:53:58.360
And quite frankly,
I believe this is already happening

00:53:58.400 --> 00:54:05.000
towards that final level
of 24-feet sea level rise.

00:54:05.040 --> 00:54:07.080
[Music continues]

00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:17.960
[Music subsides]

00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:21.400
The Paris Agreement says that
one and a half degrees should be our aim.

00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:26.560
And the fact that we're heading much more
rapidly towards three and half degrees

00:54:26.600 --> 00:54:30.040
should be of grave concern for everybody.

00:54:31.120 --> 00:54:33.480
[Indistinct clamouring]

00:54:37.440 --> 00:54:38.920
[Metallic clang]

00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:40.920
[Music]

00:54:40.960 --> 00:54:44.280
My family is still mostly in Bangladesh,

00:54:44.320 --> 00:54:48.120
and I see it as, I guess,

00:54:48.160 --> 00:54:51.560
in my case, a very personal example

00:54:51.600 --> 00:54:56.880
of the deep injustice
at the heart of the climate crisis.

00:54:56.920 --> 00:54:58.960
[Music continues]

00:55:02.800 --> 00:55:08.640
[Tessa] As a country, it's done so little
historically to contribute to...

00:55:08.680 --> 00:55:11.320
the amount of carbon
that's in the atmosphere, and...

00:55:11.360 --> 00:55:13.600
it's done so little
to cause the climate crisis.

00:55:13.640 --> 00:55:16.880
And yet, people there will be
bearing the impact,

00:55:16.920 --> 00:55:21.480
already are overwhelmingly
living with the impacts

00:55:21.520 --> 00:55:23.720
that we're currently experiencing
of climate change.

00:55:23.760 --> 00:55:25.800
[Music continues]

00:55:31.640 --> 00:55:35.080
Half a metre sea level rise by 2050.

00:55:35.120 --> 00:55:36.480
We will see...

00:55:36.520 --> 00:55:40.560
Everyone knows, Bangladesh -
two thirds of the country underwater.

00:55:40.600 --> 00:55:42.400
[Music continues]

00:55:42.440 --> 00:55:45.280
[Concerned chatter]

00:55:45.320 --> 00:55:47.520
[Tessa] It's expected
that tens of millions...

00:55:47.560 --> 00:55:53.840
I think one estimate is that
30 million people will have to emigrate...

00:55:53.880 --> 00:55:57.720
as a result
of the impacts of climate change.

00:55:57.760 --> 00:56:03.040
Vietnam. 90% of the country underwater,
sea water, at least once a year,

00:56:03.080 --> 00:56:05.160
by 2050, in 30 years' time.

00:56:05.200 --> 00:56:07.200
[Music continues]

00:56:09.760 --> 00:56:11.520
[David] The Mekong Delta region

00:56:11.560 --> 00:56:15.560
is the biggest series
of rice paddy fields in the world.

00:56:15.600 --> 00:56:17.760
By the time we get to mid-century,

00:56:17.800 --> 00:56:20.040
rice production will collapse.

00:56:21.440 --> 00:56:25.920
At three and a half degrees,
roughly 74% of the world's population

00:56:25.960 --> 00:56:28.240
cannot live where they do today,

00:56:28.280 --> 00:56:31.000
because the midday summer air temperature

00:56:31.040 --> 00:56:35.000
will be too hot for the body
to be able to function.

00:56:35.040 --> 00:56:37.200
The body and organs
will start to collapse.

00:56:37.240 --> 00:56:40.320
[Music continues]

00:56:40.360 --> 00:56:43.280
We are looking, by mid-century,

00:56:43.320 --> 00:56:49.160
possibly at 100 million climate refugees
from that part of the world,

00:56:49.200 --> 00:56:52.200
possibly 200, 300 million.

00:56:52.240 --> 00:56:54.800
And that will be happening
around the world.

00:56:54.840 --> 00:56:56.880
[Music continues]

00:57:03.760 --> 00:57:09.200
We have to de-fossilize
the global economy as quickly as we can.

00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:12.960
[Muffled clanging]

00:57:15.200 --> 00:57:17.520
[Sombre music]

00:57:17.560 --> 00:57:20.240
[Mechanical thrumming, rattling]

00:57:39.800 --> 00:57:41.800
[Music continues]

00:57:44.360 --> 00:57:46.640
[Intense whirring]

00:58:05.560 --> 00:58:07.560
[Music continues]

00:58:31.520 --> 00:58:33.520
[Reverse indicator beeps]

00:58:39.640 --> 00:58:41.640
[Music continues]

00:59:04.040 --> 00:59:06.040
[Music continues]

00:59:23.240 --> 00:59:25.240
[Music continues]

00:59:44.680 --> 00:59:46.680
[Music continues]

00:59:53.120 --> 00:59:57.280
[Music continues;
Indistinct chanting, clamouring]

01:00:07.120 --> 01:00:10.480
[Kevin] In my view, there are
many reasons to be deeply critical

01:00:10.520 --> 01:00:12.560
of the whole COP process.

01:00:13.760 --> 01:00:18.480
And the most dangerous voice there
was that from the fossil fuel industry.

01:00:18.520 --> 01:00:23.280
And remember, that industry
is not always a private sector voice,

01:00:23.320 --> 01:00:26.080
it's often the voice of the governments.

01:00:26.120 --> 01:00:27.720
[Music continues]

01:00:27.760 --> 01:00:29.800
[Clamouring continues]

01:00:32.520 --> 01:00:36.240
[Kevin] A lot of the oil companies
are owned by the governments,

01:00:36.280 --> 01:00:38.720
so the governments
themselves are, in effect,

01:00:38.760 --> 01:00:41.040
the oil companies
in many parts of the world.

01:00:46.480 --> 01:00:51.040
So, whilst tens of thousands,
hundreds of thousands of protesters

01:00:51.080 --> 01:00:55.560
and civil society activists,
or wider society is kept at arm's reach...

01:01:00.680 --> 01:01:05.120
...the fossil fuel lobbyists
are right in there with the negotiators,

01:01:05.160 --> 01:01:07.400
before COP and during COP.

01:01:07.440 --> 01:01:09.960
They're in the governments.
They're part of the governments.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:12.720
They're part of the DNA of the COP.

01:01:12.760 --> 01:01:14.680
[Music continues]

01:01:14.720 --> 01:01:17.040
[Kevin] And then we stand back saying,

01:01:17.080 --> 01:01:20.000
"Oh, look, there's hardly anything
about the fossil fuel industry

01:01:20.040 --> 01:01:21.680
"and how we have to rapidly phase it out

01:01:21.720 --> 01:01:23.880
"within the agreements
that come out of these COPs."

01:01:23.920 --> 01:01:26.400
And Glasgow, again, was just the same.

01:01:26.440 --> 01:01:28.440
[Music continues]

01:01:31.920 --> 01:01:35.000
[Kevin] They're in and out
of the ministries far more...

01:01:35.040 --> 01:01:37.800
I think there's some evidence to suggest
nine or ten times more often

01:01:37.840 --> 01:01:40.120
than you get people from the renewables
coming in there.

01:01:40.160 --> 01:01:42.720
And they've been doing this, again,
for decade after decade.

01:01:42.760 --> 01:01:44.760
[Music continues]

01:02:08.120 --> 01:02:10.120
[Music subsides]

01:02:10.160 --> 01:02:14.560
The fact is that if we were
about to be hit by a meteorite,

01:02:14.600 --> 01:02:18.120
if the country was about
to be hit by a meteorite,

01:02:18.160 --> 01:02:21.040
the government
would do everything possible

01:02:21.080 --> 01:02:23.200
to prevent that happening, immediately.

01:02:23.240 --> 01:02:28.520
It wouldn't say, "Oh, let's wait for
the private sector to come up with a plan

01:02:28.560 --> 01:02:34.120
"and a managed transition
before the moment of impact," right?

01:02:34.160 --> 01:02:36.280
We can't afford to do that.

01:02:36.320 --> 01:02:39.600
The urgency of the climate crisis

01:02:39.640 --> 01:02:43.440
is not entirely unlike
the threat we would face

01:02:43.480 --> 01:02:45.640
if we were to be hit by a meteorite.

01:02:45.680 --> 01:02:49.520
And therefore,
we cannot rely on self-serving,

01:02:49.560 --> 01:02:55.320
capital gains-making shareholders
in oil companies for that transition.

01:02:55.360 --> 01:02:57.400
[Eerie music]

01:03:17.680 --> 01:03:19.760
[Music continues]

01:03:22.800 --> 01:03:25.600
[Throbbing, sinister music]

01:03:43.880 --> 01:03:45.880
[Music continues]

01:04:03.960 --> 01:04:06.800
[Deirdre] We need
to decommission properly.

01:04:06.840 --> 01:04:09.600
You know, there are
certain obligations that we're under.

01:04:09.640 --> 01:04:11.880
And as a sector,
we want to make sure that,

01:04:11.920 --> 01:04:14.600
you know, we do tidy up after ourselves.

01:04:14.640 --> 01:04:18.200
So, we decommission,
we do it safely, we do it efficiently,

01:04:18.240 --> 01:04:23.080
we do it cost effectively, and we do it
with an environmental head on.

01:04:23.120 --> 01:04:25.800
[Mechanical thrumming, rattling]

01:04:28.880 --> 01:04:33.320
[Deirdre] The industry is liable for all
the costs associated with decommissioning.

01:04:38.160 --> 01:04:43.760
The way that the tax regime works
in this country for oil and gas companies

01:04:43.800 --> 01:04:47.040
is that they can claim costs

01:04:47.080 --> 01:04:50.120
that they incur
from decommissioning oil and gas assets,

01:04:50.160 --> 01:04:52.600
which is another way of saying

01:04:52.640 --> 01:04:55.280
"cleaning up
the mess that they've created."

01:04:55.320 --> 01:04:59.000
You know, it's disassembling rigs,
making sure that there isn't

01:04:59.040 --> 01:05:01.480
a whole load of toxic sludge left behind.

01:05:01.520 --> 01:05:05.280
The sort of clean up
that all polluting industries have to do

01:05:05.320 --> 01:05:08.440
when they exit from that industry.

01:05:08.480 --> 01:05:13.280
But if you're an oil and gas company,
the UK taxpayer pays

01:05:13.320 --> 01:05:17.120
about 50% of the costs of decommissioning.

01:05:17.160 --> 01:05:19.400
[Soft mechanical hum]

01:05:20.520 --> 01:05:22.520
[Rattling]

01:05:25.080 --> 01:05:29.640
[Tessa] All companies in the sector
benefit from that tax regime.

01:05:29.680 --> 01:05:33.040
And it means that whether they're
a British company or a foreign company,

01:05:33.080 --> 01:05:38.000
they are not making a contribution
to the British economy

01:05:38.040 --> 01:05:42.720
in terms of the money
that they contribute to the public purse,

01:05:42.760 --> 01:05:46.240
and they are benefiting
from taxpayer dollars.

01:05:46.280 --> 01:05:48.920
[Throbbing, sinister music]

01:05:56.040 --> 01:05:59.600
[Tessa] The UK's Office
of National Accounts

01:05:59.640 --> 01:06:03.600
has estimated that,
over the next few decades,

01:06:03.640 --> 01:06:08.960
we are on the hook
for £18 billion in decommissioning costs.

01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:11.640
[Intense whirring, crackling]

01:06:11.680 --> 01:06:15.360
[Tessa] It's the kind of arrangement
that no other industry benefits from.

01:06:22.680 --> 01:06:24.960
[Whirring, crackling continue]

01:06:26.520 --> 01:06:29.880
[Jake] We need to transition, we need
to get the manufacturing side onshore.

01:06:31.920 --> 01:06:34.760
For decommissioning oil and gas,
we could recycle the steel,

01:06:34.800 --> 01:06:37.960
and we could build jackets for turbines.

01:06:38.000 --> 01:06:40.520
We could...build the turbines.

01:06:40.560 --> 01:06:42.880
[Wind turbines whir]

01:06:45.400 --> 01:06:47.880
[Whirring continues]

01:06:49.880 --> 01:06:53.160
[Jake] Right now,
the future of North Sea oil...

01:06:53.200 --> 01:06:55.800
is in the hands of the investment houses.

01:06:57.800 --> 01:07:02.680
As the oil and gas depletes in the UK now,

01:07:02.720 --> 01:07:05.880
the majors aren't
making enough quick enough.

01:07:05.920 --> 01:07:09.960
And as their assets get older,
they've got to spend more money on them,

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:12.000
and they don't want
to be doing that either.

01:07:15.160 --> 01:07:17.680
So, what we've got now are...

01:07:17.720 --> 01:07:20.640
investment houses
looking to make a quick buck.

01:07:22.160 --> 01:07:25.280
As we move forward
with the whole climate debate,

01:07:25.320 --> 01:07:29.600
you're going to see
these investment houses

01:07:29.640 --> 01:07:34.760
being exposed and attacked
for continuing to invest in oil and gas.

01:07:34.800 --> 01:07:37.200
[Gloomy music]

01:07:41.160 --> 01:07:43.440
[Jake] These investment houses...

01:07:43.480 --> 01:07:45.320
are going to think twice,

01:07:45.360 --> 01:07:48.320
and a lot of them
are just going to pull the plug.

01:07:48.360 --> 01:07:50.040
And if they pull the plug...

01:07:51.360 --> 01:07:53.600
..that ends operations here.

01:07:53.640 --> 01:07:57.400
[Seagulls caw in distance]

01:07:57.440 --> 01:07:59.720
[Jake] That...shuts it down.

01:07:59.760 --> 01:08:01.920
[Music continues]

01:08:06.080 --> 01:08:08.240
[Jake] Oil and gas workers,
now, are very worried

01:08:08.280 --> 01:08:10.440
about what the future holds for them.

01:08:14.480 --> 01:08:18.600
Technology, the ability, the core skills,

01:08:18.640 --> 01:08:21.040
the infrastructure, the...

01:08:21.080 --> 01:08:23.840
the supply chain companies,
they're all here.

01:08:23.880 --> 01:08:27.960
They can all deliver...on...

01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:29.720
what we need to do
in the renewable sector,

01:08:29.760 --> 01:08:33.440
whether it's carbon capture,
whether it's hydrogen production.

01:08:35.440 --> 01:08:37.800
We can do it all...

01:08:37.840 --> 01:08:39.320
given the chance.

01:08:39.360 --> 01:08:41.360
[Music continues]

01:08:43.480 --> 01:08:46.440
[Music continues, seagulls]

01:08:46.480 --> 01:08:49.800
[James] You see, the big oil companies,
they're now beginning to sell up...

01:08:49.840 --> 01:08:52.320
- [Ship's horn blares]
- ..and move away.

01:08:53.600 --> 01:08:57.800
And in their place come
a whole range of much smaller companies.

01:08:57.840 --> 01:08:59.760
So, those are private equity companies

01:08:59.800 --> 01:09:05.520
who are owned by private individuals
based in, say, for example,

01:09:05.560 --> 01:09:09.680
- Switzerland or the USA or Russia.
- [Percussive music]

01:09:09.720 --> 01:09:15.000
And there's... And also,
state-owned companies such as Malaysia,

01:09:15.040 --> 01:09:19.520
Abu Dhabi, but also China and Iran.

01:09:19.560 --> 01:09:22.520
Well, the Chinese National
Offshore Oil Company

01:09:22.560 --> 01:09:25.960
has three major oil fields
in the North Sea.

01:09:26.000 --> 01:09:29.200
Telford, Golden Eagle and Buzzard.

01:09:29.240 --> 01:09:33.600
Buzzard is the highest producing oil field
in the UK North Sea.

01:09:33.640 --> 01:09:38.040
So, China has an increasingly
important role to play

01:09:38.080 --> 01:09:40.560
in the future of this area.

01:09:40.600 --> 01:09:44.920
And that's an important thing
when we think about, how much control

01:09:44.960 --> 01:09:50.600
do we, as British citizens,
have over the future of the North Sea?

01:09:51.960 --> 01:09:53.840
If, say, for example, people in Scotland

01:09:53.880 --> 01:09:59.960
say, "We don't want that oil exploited
because of climate change," or whatever,

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.200
then the UK would have to compensate

01:10:04.240 --> 01:10:08.640
the Chinese National Oil Company
and, effectively, the Chinese state

01:10:08.680 --> 01:10:11.080
for tearing up the contract
that it's made with them.

01:10:11.120 --> 01:10:12.920
[Music continues]

01:10:12.960 --> 01:10:14.840
[James] Which means that it is

01:10:14.880 --> 01:10:18.840
more and more removed
from government control

01:10:18.880 --> 01:10:21.800
and democratic control
and public scrutiny.

01:10:21.840 --> 01:10:24.560
[Music continues]

01:10:26.760 --> 01:10:29.720
[Music subsides;
Eerie, reverberant hum]

01:10:36.040 --> 01:10:39.960
[James] About two thirds
of the oil that we produce

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:43.320
is being exported to countries such as...

01:10:43.360 --> 01:10:46.400
China and the US,

01:10:46.440 --> 01:10:50.240
and not used to be refined here
on the UK mainland...

01:10:51.720 --> 01:10:56.760
..which undermines the argument that this
is important for UK energy security.

01:11:08.880 --> 01:11:11.320
[Dylan] I think we'll look back
on this era as the good old days

01:11:11.360 --> 01:11:15.120
before everything goes insane
and we can't even stop it anymore.

01:11:15.160 --> 01:11:18.480
And I think there's going to be a lot
of resentment from future generations,

01:11:18.520 --> 01:11:21.320
'cause we really are at the last point
where we can change things.

01:11:21.360 --> 01:11:23.840
And if we don't,
I don't think the future generations

01:11:23.880 --> 01:11:26.040
are ever really going to be able
to forgive us.

01:11:26.080 --> 01:11:28.280
Yeah, they're going to blame us,

01:11:28.320 --> 01:11:30.760
and we're not even
the ones in control here.

01:11:30.800 --> 01:11:33.200
[Traffic hums]

01:11:34.720 --> 01:11:37.320
[Seagulls caw in distance]

01:11:39.440 --> 01:11:41.480
We have been consistently wrong

01:11:41.520 --> 01:11:45.200
about the scale at which renewables
have become competitive.

01:11:45.240 --> 01:11:48.680
The price of solar has dropped by 80%
in the last decade.

01:11:48.720 --> 01:11:51.200
Nobody, including the world's
leading energy forecasters,

01:11:51.240 --> 01:11:53.440
saw that coming.

01:11:53.480 --> 01:11:56.520
[Wind rushes softly]

01:11:56.560 --> 01:12:01.120
[Tessa] So, to continue to lock in
our dependency on oil and gas

01:12:01.160 --> 01:12:04.960
because we think that in 30 years' time
we might still need it,

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:07.000
is a huge mistake.

01:12:07.040 --> 01:12:09.040
[Soft music]

01:12:28.800 --> 01:12:30.800
[Music continues]

01:12:35.120 --> 01:12:39.640
[Kevin] Compared with digging deep
beneath the North Sea to produce this,

01:12:39.680 --> 01:12:42.360
you know, quite challenging material...

01:12:42.400 --> 01:12:45.240
[Music continues]

01:12:45.280 --> 01:12:50.200
[Kevin] ..to then pipe it, day after day,
year after year, decade after decade,

01:12:50.240 --> 01:12:53.160
to huge refineries
that then convert this black goo

01:12:53.200 --> 01:12:55.760
into all sorts of amazing products,
one way or another.

01:12:55.800 --> 01:12:58.360
That we've managed to do that
is incredible.

01:12:58.400 --> 01:13:00.520
[Music continues]

01:13:03.000 --> 01:13:06.960
[Kevin] And then you look at the renewable
industry now that's developing.

01:13:07.000 --> 01:13:09.000
It looks so much simpler

01:13:09.040 --> 01:13:11.960
than this oil industry
that we've completely normalised.

01:13:13.120 --> 01:13:15.640
And I look at the skills
that we have offshore,

01:13:15.680 --> 01:13:19.240
that degree of, sort of, you know,
engineering understanding and so forth.

01:13:19.280 --> 01:13:22.480
You think, "If we applied
that to the renewables,

01:13:22.520 --> 01:13:24.560
"we could deliver a renewable renaissance,

01:13:24.600 --> 01:13:29.600
"or a new renewal conversion
from fossil fuels

01:13:29.640 --> 01:13:33.400
"far more quickly than we ever built
the fossil fuel industry."

01:13:33.440 --> 01:13:35.480
[Music continues]

01:13:49.640 --> 01:13:51.640
[Music continues]

01:14:06.400 --> 01:14:08.400
[Music subsides]

01:14:13.600 --> 01:14:15.800
[Steve] We need
every institution of finance,

01:14:15.840 --> 01:14:19.480
be they insurers
or fund managers or banks,

01:14:19.520 --> 01:14:21.840
the OECD, the World Bank, the IMF,

01:14:21.880 --> 01:14:23.560
we all need to work collectively

01:14:23.600 --> 01:14:26.840
to make sure that we rebase
global economic growth

01:14:26.880 --> 01:14:29.480
so that it's no longer
powered by fossil fuels.

01:14:29.520 --> 01:14:31.520
[Traffic hums]

01:14:34.560 --> 01:14:39.200
[Steve] If we don't deliver that,
then civilisation itself is at risk.

01:14:40.920 --> 01:14:43.440
I know that sounds hyperbolic,
but it is a fact.

01:14:43.480 --> 01:14:45.120
[Plane engine roars]

01:14:57.440 --> 01:15:00.560
[Steve] Oil was discovered in 1859.

01:15:00.600 --> 01:15:06.600
At that time, there were about
800 whaling vessels in the world.

01:15:06.640 --> 01:15:11.200
And that was how we powered
light in cities - whale oil.

01:15:13.240 --> 01:15:15.880
[Gloomy music]

01:15:15.920 --> 01:15:21.880
[Steve] About ten years later,
half of that whaling fleet was worthless

01:15:21.920 --> 01:15:24.040
because nobody needed the whales anymore.

01:15:24.080 --> 01:15:25.520
It's going to take a lot longer,

01:15:25.560 --> 01:15:32.240
But the rigs of today can be equated
to the whaling vessels of 150 years ago.

01:15:32.280 --> 01:15:34.280
[Music continues]

01:15:43.520 --> 01:15:45.560
[Kevin] This period
of burning fossil fuels,

01:15:45.600 --> 01:15:49.520
of really taking what has been
millions and millions of years

01:15:49.560 --> 01:15:53.480
of laying down the carbon
through natural processes

01:15:53.520 --> 01:15:56.800
and suddenly releasing it
virtually overnight,

01:15:56.840 --> 01:15:59.240
that's a very short timeframe.

01:15:59.280 --> 01:16:03.200
So, to assume that we can't live
as humans without fossil fuels

01:16:03.240 --> 01:16:06.160
completely misunderstands
that we have done so in the past...

01:16:08.920 --> 01:16:11.080
..and that we will have to in the future.

01:16:11.120 --> 01:16:13.120
[Music continues]

01:16:19.880 --> 01:16:21.880
[Music continues]

01:16:26.640 --> 01:16:32.760
[James] We're embedded
in the physical realm of the oil machine,

01:16:32.800 --> 01:16:36.600
but we're also embedded
in the emotional world of that.

01:16:36.640 --> 01:16:38.640
[music]

01:16:42.800 --> 01:16:45.640
[James] Makes the way we think
and that makes the way we feel.

01:16:45.680 --> 01:16:47.280
[Music continues]

01:17:02.000 --> 01:17:05.280
[James] The difficulties
of getting out of oil...

01:17:05.320 --> 01:17:10.760
is that it feels like
life is going to be more...deprived.

01:17:12.640 --> 01:17:14.880
And we're frightened of that.

01:17:14.920 --> 01:17:16.920
[Music continues]

01:17:34.000 --> 01:17:36.000
[Music continues]

01:17:38.040 --> 01:17:42.920
[James] Our desires are often made
possible by a level of energy consumption.

01:17:45.560 --> 01:17:47.560
[Music continues]

01:17:57.520 --> 01:17:59.520
[Music continues]

01:18:02.320 --> 01:18:05.520
[Reflective music]

01:18:09.880 --> 01:18:12.360
[James] We've been in a phase of oil.

01:18:14.960 --> 01:18:16.880
We have to go beyond it.

01:18:23.400 --> 01:18:26.000
We have to find a way
out the other side of it.

01:18:30.480 --> 01:18:33.640
That will lead us
to learning new ways of being.

01:18:33.680 --> 01:18:35.680
[Music continues]

01:18:48.000 --> 01:18:50.960
[Muffled, reverberant bubbling]

01:18:52.440 --> 01:18:54.440
[Music subsides]

01:18:59.600 --> 01:19:01.600
[Bubbling continues]

01:19:52.600 --> 01:19:54.800
[Bubbling subsides]

01:21:09.960 --> 01:21:12.960
Descriptive subtitles by Matchbox Cinesub