Mission-driven organisations get better results, or so the theory goes.

As a disciple of Simon Sinek and his ‘Start with Why’ methodology, I subscribe to the view that organisations that act and communicate with purpose are more likely to succeed.

In his best-selling book, Sinek tells organisations to stop focusing on what they do and how they do it. Instead, he tells them to become obsessed with “why” they do it.

With that in mind, I have been watching the opening weeks of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government with real interest.

Both he and his ministers have been at pains to emphasise that this government will do things differently. Politics is about service of the British people, they say.

Five whys

He is a man on a mission – five missions, in fact – and all five begin with “why”.

Take energy for example. The Labour message is not about building a certain number of wind turbines or hydrogen plants (the how). It’s about their mission to transform the UK into a “clean energy superpower” (the why).

Sir Keir is clearly cognisant of Sinek’s theory. But on energy he is ignoring one of the fundamental principles. That what you do, must support why you do it.

And that is the problem with the direction Labour is going. Because right now the “what” and the “how” do not align with the “why”.

If your “why” is to deliver energy security to free the UK from “the manipulations of Vladimir Putin and petrostates”, then logic would dictate that we should be maximising output from the North Sea, given that oil and gas accounts for 75% of our energy use.

If the “why” is climate leadership, then we should surely be sourcing the hydrocarbons we need from the lowest emitting source. This is our domestic industry. Here, emissions are up to four-times lower than imported LNG.

I support and fully endorse Labour mission – nothing would be better for Aberdeen. But I simply do not believe it can be delivered if we accelerate the decline of the North Sea. A drilling ban and a fiscal regime that drives investment away will do just this.

*Keir Starmer visits Whitelee Windfarm, the largest onshore windfarm in the UK, in 2021.*

Simple truths

The party’s hugely exciting prospectus to grow green jobs and technologies is undermined by its stubborn ignorance of three simple truths. The fact that we need oil and gas, that we have to import what we don’t produce ourselves and that this will remain the case well beyond 2050, even in a net zero scenario.

If you wind down the North Sea too quickly, before jobs and opportunities are available at scale in the renewables sector, then you lose the world class workforce and supply chain. The green prosperity mission Sir Keir speaks of will have to be aborted if we lose the workforce.

The energy transition requires a very tricky balance to be struck. We need to manage what will be the final phase of exploration and production in the North Sea and offset some of the production decline we have seen over the past two decades.

At the same time, we also need to unlock over £1 trillion in investment. This is to develop and build out the low carbon technologies of the future.

And while doing both of those things, we need to make sure we preserve our world-class workforce and supply chain. We cannot deliver net zero without them.

Jobs at risk

Right now, there are jobs and projects in renewables – but not at the scale we need. So we need oil and gas work right now to retain the skills we need for the future.

Anything that hastens the end of oil and gas production places those jobs at risk and will create the cliff edge that all parties say they want to avoid. It is not a just transition if you put tens of thousands of people out of work.

So, if your “why” is to turn the UK into a clean energy superpower, then we must focus relentlessly on job creation in the renewables sector. That’s how you achieve it.

Then let’s show the world how oil and gas can be produced with lower emissions through platform electrification, reduced flaring and clean tech.

We need an energy strategy that is pragmatic about the full energy mix. It must deliver power for our country and its economy. If we cannot grasp that integrated energy future, our path to net zero could look more like a road to nowhere.

A road that leaves the UK poorer, less energy secure, and beholden to foreign regimes for the energy we need to keep the lights on and our economy running.

Related Content

De-risking innovation: being braver and bolder

In face of government abdication, courts to determine pace of energy sector

GB Energy tilts at windmills with Nordic comparisons