'Our house is on fire, Andy': Activists send stark message to PM over new oil and gas drilling

By Denis Loktev

Published on 17/08/2026 - 16:43 GMT+2

Newly installed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has come under fire for failing to even mention the climate crisis during his first few weeks in office.

With the UK gripped by five, record-breaking heatwaves so far this summer, the consequences of climate change of hard to ignore. Yet Burnham has prioritised many other issues ahead of climate change-induced extreme weather.

Activists from Greenpeace and art collective A Letter From Lucy have taken matters into their own hands: painting a giant artwork onto a hillside scorched by wildfire.

"Our house is on fire, Andy"

The artwork, created at Sychnant Pass in Eryri National Park, Conwy, reads "Our house is on fire, Andy" alongside an illustration of Burnham tipping a barrel of "oil and gas" onto flames.

According to Greenpeace, the 1,120-square metre artwork was made with eco-friendly, plastic-free paint designed for sports pitches, applied directly onto the fire-blackened earth. It draws on Greta Thunberg's 2019 warning to world leaders that "our house is on fire".

The action coincided with the final day of a public consultation on Rosebank, the UK's largest undeveloped oil field. A parallel consultation on the Jackdaw gas field closed a week earlier.

Despite Labour’s stated climate commitments, Burnham has signalled a "more pragmatic" approach to North Sea oil and gas, according to his deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell, who described it as a "change of emphasis" rather than a reversal of policy as he took office. Powell said the government remained committed to Labour's manifesto pledge not to issue new North Sea licenses, but that Burnham wanted to "work with the industry" so oil and gas could continue contributing to the energy transition "over the long term".

Greenpeace campaigner Maja Darlington is quoted as saying the government's approach was not the pragmatic one it claims to be. "There is nothing pragmatic about watching communities be battered by climate chaos while the Prime Minister flirts with expanding the very industry driving it," she said. "This summer has been an endless showreel of fossil-fuelled disasters playing out across the country."

A summer of climate extremes

The protest comes at the end of a summer marked by heatwaves in June, July and August, with the UK on track to record its warmest summer since records began. Drought conditions now cover almost three-quarters of the country, and more than 27 million people are living under water restrictions.

Greenpeace cites an estimated 2,700 excess deaths linked to the May and June heatwaves. Darlington said the burden was falling hardest on those least able to avoid it: "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."

Why has Rosebank been criticised?

Rosebank has been branded a "carbon bomb" by campaigners. Estimates cited by Greenpeace put the project's lifetime emissions at 254 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to nearly 70 per cent of the UK's entire annual emissions in 2024.

Oxfam research cited by Greenpeace suggests that if both Rosebank and Jackdaw go ahead, 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".

The Rosebank project was originally approved in 2023 and Jackdaw in 2022, before a Scottish court ruled both consents unlawful in January 2025 over their failure to account for emissions from burning the extracted fuel. Developers have since resubmitted revised environmental assessments, and this week's consultations are the last regulatory step before ministers issue a final decision.

"Does the Prime Minister really want to stand with the oil companies making billions, rather than the millions already paying the price?" Darlington said. "Our message is simple: be brave - say no."