Big Oil Proof Claims Researchers Are Lying About Their Pledge to Climate Action – Do You Support That?
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
What a surprise – the researchers carefully analyzed Big Oil’s public commitments to climate change relative to their own actions, and concluded that “the greenwashing allegations are plausible.” department”.
Big oil all say, do not touch climate change? Researchers say they have proof
Science ABC / According to the environmental reporter Nick Kilvert
The world’s most polluting oil companies are making big promises but doing little on climate change, according to new research published today.
Main attractions:
- Researchers looked at how four major oil companies performed against their clean energy claims
- They found that none of them were producing clean energy on a scale indicating a shift away from fossil fuels.
- Clean energy investment targets are often not met
Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP fail to meet their green energy investment commitments and lack consistent transparency in their investment reporting, researchers say. scientific journal PLOS ONE.
They say fossil fuel production has been maintained or increased by Chevron, Shell and BP between 2009 and 2020, despite commitment, or in Chevron’s case “desired”, net zero emissions by 2050 or before.
…
No sign of moving away from fossil fuels
From 2009 to 2020, none of the four companies renewable energy generated on a scale would “show a shift away from fossil fuels”, although all showed a significant increase in references to “climate change”, “process of conversion”, “emissions” and “low carbon energy” in their annual report.
…
Chevron, ExxonMobil pull the chain
Investments in “clean energy” by two US companies – Chevron and ExxonMobil – account for less than a quarter of their total capital expenditure.
But the researchers recommend caution even with these modest numbers.
“We can have a company that claims they have invested X amount of dollars in clean energy, but we don’t really know what clean energy means,” Dr. Trencher said.
“There is no industry-accepted definition of this.”
…
Summary of the study;
BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell’s Clean Energy Statement: A mismatch between discourse, action, and investment
Mei Li, Gregory Trencher, Jusen Asuka
Published: February 16, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263596
abstract
The energy products of oil and gas professionals have contributed significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and planetary warming over the past century. Thus, mid-century denuclearization of the global economy to avoid dangerous climate change would not have been possible without a profound transformation of fossil fuel-based business models. surname. Recently, a number of majors are increasingly discussing clean energy and climate change, committing to decarbonization strategies and investing in alternative energies. Some even claim to be transforming into clean energy companies. Given the history of climate disruption and “greenwashing” actions, it is important to objectively assess current and historical decarbonization efforts and investment behavior. This study focuses on two American experts (Chevron, ExxonMobil) and two European experts (BP, Shell). Using data collected between 2009–2020, we compare levels of decarbonization and clean energy transitions from three dimensions: (1) keyword usage in the annual report (discourse); (2) business strategy (commitment and action); and (3) fossil fuel production, spending and income along with investment in clean energy (investments). We have seen a sharp increase in discourse related to “climate”, “low carbon” and “transition”, particularly by BP and Shell. Similarly, we observe a growing trend towards strategies related to decarbonization and clean energy. But these are governed by commitments rather than concrete actions. Furthermore, the financial analysis shows that the business model continues to depend on fossil fuels along with negligible and unclear spending on clean energy. We therefore conclude that the transition to clean energy business models will not occur, as the scale of investment and action does not fit the discourse. Until investment actions and behaviors fit the discourse, greenwashing accusations seem to have a basis.
Read more: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263596
I know you are all as shocked as I am. Who would have predicted that researchers analyzing the promises of big oil would discover that big oil doesn’t really care about climate change?
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