Greenpeace has addressed Andy Burnham in a land artwork on the site of an extinguished wildfire in North Wales, urging the new PM to take serious action to address the climate impacts battering the country and reject more oil and gas drilling.
Activists installed the land art on Sychnant Pass (within Eryri National Park) in Conwy, Wales, where “terrifying” wildfires recently incinerated vast parts of the landscape. Greenpeace used the scorched earth as a canvas to send a message to the new PM: “Our house is on fire Andy”, accompanied by an illustration of Burnham poised to pour oil and gas over the flames.
The 1,120 m² artwork, made using eco-friendly, plastic-free paint, draws on Greta Thunberg’s famous speech in 2019, where she urged world leaders to take action to stop climate change.
The protest lands at the end of a summer defined by climate extremes. Following successive heatwaves throughout June, July and August, the UK is on track to record its warmest summer on record. Drought conditions now grip almost three-quarters of the country, with over 27 million facing water restrictions. These extreme conditions have proven deadly, with May and June’s heatwaves accounting for an estimated 2,700 excess deaths.
It also lands on the final day of a public consultation on whether to approve Rosebank, a controversial oil field branded a “carbon bomb” by campaigners and “climate vandalism” by Ed Miliband. Consultation for Jackdaw, another gas field in the North Sea, closed a week before.
Despite Labour’s stated climate commitments, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has left the door open to approving these licenses under the guise of a “pragmatic” approach to energy security.
Greenpeace campaigner Maja Darlington said, “The PM wants to be pragmatic, but there is nothing pragmatic about watching communities be battered by climate chaos while the Prime Minister flirts with expanding the very industry driving it. This summer has been an endless showreel of fossil-fuelled disasters playing out across the country. As the Conwy community reels from their own, we’re urging Andy to see through the self-serving promises of Big Oil and take an honest look at the real world consequences of more North Sea drilling.
“More drilling means more heatwaves, more droughts, more wildfires, and more suffering for the communities Burnham represents. The climate crisis is already hitting working people hardest — firefighters on the front line, bus drivers exposed to inhumane conditions, nurses collapsing on the job.
“Does the Prime Minister really want to stand with the oil companies making billions, rather than the millions already paying the price? Our message is simple: be brave – say no.”
Estimates show that the Rosebank project would generate a total of 254 million tonnes of CO₂ over its lifetime – equivalent to nearly 70% of the UK’s entire annual emissions in 2024.
Oxfam research suggests that if both the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields are approved, their combined lifetime emissions would contribute to an estimated 65,495 excess heat deaths globally – equivalent to wiping out the entire population of Clacton-on-Sea.
Evidence also shows that approving Rosebank would not lower energy bills, nor meaningfully impact the UK’s energy security – with 80% of Rosebank’s oil reserves destined for export and all of it sold at global market prices. The government’s own energy factsheet confirms this, saying: “We are price-takers, not price-makers.”
