Celebrations as government ditches fracking

In a great piece of news that’s been welcomed by national CPRE and local groups across the country, the government have announced that they’re ditching fracking!

This marks an end to government support for fracking in England and comes as a result of years of hard-fought campaigning from local communities, ourselves and other environmental groups.

This amounts to an effective ban on fracking in the UK. Public pressure has paid off – and CPRE has played a crucial role.

How we did it – together

If you were one of the amazing 200,000 people who signed our petition to stop fast-tracked fracking: thank you. Perhaps you wrote one of thousands of letters to MPs and local councillors, or generously donated to our campaign? Thank you. You played a key part in achieving this fantastic result.

This is no small feat, and was achieved in the face of fierce lobbying by the fracking industry. They’ve been pushing government to introduce weaker regulations to make it easier to frack. But, in the end, people power and common sense prevailed. This success shows that when we come together in huge numbers, we can have real and lasting impact.

How we got here

Fracking was never a good idea. Its large-scale adoption could have industrialised our countryside, pushed communities out of decision-making and worsened the climate crisis. And it carried the risk of causing earthquakes near where people live.

We’ve long been challenging the government over the multitude of risks it carries, including our huge #Frackturedcommunities campaign – and finally, our messages have been heard. Time will tell how this plays out and we’ll be keeping on our toes, but today, we’re celebrating seeing the back of the fracking industry in England.

The government must now focus on new policies to tackle the climate emergency, from investing in renewables and sustainable public transport to improving the energy efficiency of our homes and restoring nature to remove carbon emissions from the air. These are all areas we campaign on, and we’ll continue to advocate for these changes to the government.

For now, though, this is a significant win for local democracy, our environment and the beautiful countryside that we all love so much.

Help us to have more successes like this

Our fracking campaign was built on the generous support of people like you. Please donate now to help us achieve more campaign successes, and to work towards a thriving, beautiful countryside for us all to enjoy.

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