These greenwashing campaigns benefit more than just the oil companies.īanks are increasingly under pressure to drop their financing of fossil fuels. Here's what we mean by greening companies: ' - bp September 16, 2021 But it is still a member of the American Petroleum Institute, which has lobbied against electric vehicle tax breaks, methane regulations and drilling restrictions in the Arctic.īP in a March 2021 report said it is working with API and other associations to move “on important issues such as support for the Paris Agreement, regulation of methane, carbon pricing and the role of climate science”.Ĭongrats on your net zero announcement! It’ll take all of us, greening companies in every sector, to tackle climate change. In 2020, BP left three associations because of their climate positions. The company’s lobbying also conflicts with its climate message. Rosneft explores for oil and gas in some of the most remote regions, including in ecologically vulnerable Siberia and the Arctic.

It has slashed its budget for oil exploration, and it’s the only oil giant that has promised to cut production over the next decade.īut the devil is in the details – or the lack thereof.īP declined to comment on why it has excluded a large portion of its emissions in its net zero commitment, choosing not to calculate emissions from its more than 20% stake in the Russian company Rosneft. The company aims to be net zero for its operations and upstream production by 2050 and to halve its carbon intensity by then. But these goals can be so narrow as to be meaningless.īeau O’Sullivan, senior communications campaigner at the global social activist group Sunrise Project*, said fossil fuel companies were “inoculating themselves from bank and shareholder pressure by making these net zero commitments”.īP has the most aggressive decarbonization plans in the sector, according to an analysis by the global energy research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie. Most other fossil fuel companies – and the banks that finance them – continue to find alternatives to promising outright emissions reductions.Ī net zero goal signals a company aims to offset its emissions by adding cleaner energy projects to their portfolios, or attempting to capture carbon dioxide and stop it from entering the air. The timing of the announcement is also notable, as it comes on the heels of a Dutch court ruling earlier this year that Shell must slash its emissions 45% by 2030. But the commitment pertains only to the company’s internal climate footprint, not the much larger share of emissions that occur when its fuels are burned for energy. Royal Dutch Shell announced last week it will cut its absolute carbon emissions in half by 2030. “The fossil fuel companies feel the heat and feel the pressure to do something about this, if they want to remain the main provider of energy,” said Yamide Dagnet, the director of climate negotiations at World Resources Institute. Oil company climate goals often exclude their products' impacts That will lower the “methane intensity” of its operations – but it ignores the emissions from customers burning the fuel itself. It plans to do that by reducing emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon over the short term.

In a Facebook ad campaign launched this month, ExxonMobil promises to cut pollution from drilling. The UK, host of this week’s landmark climate summit in Glasgow, will limit participation by companies unless they have a “credible short-term action plan” to ratchet down emissions.īut in the run-up to this year’s negotiations, oil companies are blitzing social media with advertisements about their climate pledges. Historically, oil and gas companies have been top sponsors at international climate meetings, hosting events and prominently displaying advertisements with their climate goals. World leaders are starting to find the gap between corporate rhetoric and action too glaring to ignore. “It’s probably safe to say that there is no company – certainly in the financial sector, or heavy-emitting sectors – that has a fully defensible plan when it comes to meeting the scale and scope of the urgency of the climate challenge.” “It’s the next five or 10 years that will determine our collective futures,” said Andrew Logan, oil and gas director at Ceres, the non-profit that advocates for corporate sustainability.

J2k format