FACE, MEET PALM: North Sea oil rigs threatened with shutdown unless they start running on green electricity.

Currently, more than 280 platforms extracting oil and gas from UK waters produce 3pc of the country’s total emissions, the equivalent of about 17 million tonnes of CO2 a year.

However, UK oil and gas fields also account for half of the country’s energy needs.

Despite this, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which regulates the offshore sector, has told producers that they must convert platforms to run on green electricity or low-carbon fuels.

This means all new developments before 2030 must be designed to run on electricity, while all those after that must be fully electrified from the start.

Critics say the new demands will deliver a fatal blow to many of the older platforms operating around British shores.

Some date back to the 1970s or 1980s and would be hugely expensive to decarbonise.

You have to give climate panicmongers credit, if that’s the right word, for being endlessly imaginative in their efforts to regulate wealth and happiness out of existence.