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The government’s proposal to change planning rules to make it easier to frack the UK is an “insult to local democracy”, campaigners say.
Around 20 protestors gathered to erect a four-meter fracking rig outside the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to protest against plans to make fracking sites “permitted developments”. Under the plans, fracking sites would be able to automatically proceed, rather than having to receive consent from local authorities.
The protest took place on the day the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report outlining the benefits of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and suggesting a rapid phasing out of fossil fuels was necessary to achieve the goal.
