ISLAND environmentalists are celebrating the government's temporary ban on fracking — but are calling for bans on more kinds of fossil fuel production.

Frack Free Isle of Wight has joined with environmental group, Brockham Oil Watch, to pressure the government to make the ban permanent after a report by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) said it wasn't possible to predict the probability or size of tremors caused by fracking.

The group has also called for a halt on other forms of extracting fossil fuels from the ground such as acidisation and matrix acidising.

A spokesperson for Frack Free Isle of Wight said: "UK oil and gas companies are set on expansion of extraction with back to back wells using differing forms of stimulation across the South East and on the Isle of Wight in the coming years.

"It continues to be implicated in causing earthquakes in Surrey and will have unacceptable environmental impacts.

"The OGA should include all forms of unconventional oil and gas extraction in their manifesto alongside the fracking moratorium.

"The Weald Action Group, with which Frack Free Isle of Wight is affiliated, has been campaigning for the definition to be expanded to ensure tighter regulation of the current expansion of onshore oil and gas.

"It’s time for a ban on all forms of extreme oil and gas extraction in UK onshore licensed areas.

"The risks to the environment and local communities are too high and the economic impacts for the country have been proven to be unacceptable as government reveals costs to the taxpayer of at least £32m so far without producing any energy in return."