In Case You Were Wondering, It Was All Bullshit: "Energy Transition", "Carbon Cuts", "Sustainable"

[hatrack]

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The company that once rebranded itself as “Beyond Petroleum” celebrated this news by announcing it would scale back its climate change plans. It had expected its carbon dioxide emissions would fall by 35% to 40% by 2030 compared with 2019. The chief executive, Bernard Looney, says it has now scaled that back to a 20% to 30% reduction. Put another way, BP has increased the forecast of how much oil and gas it will be producing in 2030 by 2m barrels a day. Profit is there to be had, and it says it would be ignoring its responsibility to its millions of shareholders not to grab it.

BP is not alone in reaping the benefits of war in eastern Europe. Earlier this week Shell posted a profit of US$40bn, about a third higher than its previous record. ExxonMobil and Chevron have also set company records for windfall gains. In Australia Woodside Energy has dramatically expanded its fossil fuel plans and emissions footprint after taking over BHP’s global petroleum development portfolio. Its oil and gas production last year was higher than forecast and 40% more than in 2021, setting up a company-record $US5.3bn profit. It aims to increase output by at least another 15% this year and continues work on a major gas export expansion in northern Western Australia that could extend production on the Burrup peninsula until 2070.

Santos had a more difficult year – traditional owners in the Tiwi Islands won a landmark legal case against the company to stop drilling for its A$6.1bn Barossa gas project – but still managed a 65% increase in revenue. It plans other new developments, including a long-promised gas field at Narrabri, where work on a pipeline is under way. Despite some claims that mostly ignore the case for cutting emissions, whether it is needed to meet future local demand remains in dispute.

Like most of their international competitors, Woodside and Santos argue their fossil fuel expansion can be consistent with the science-based goal set at the landmark 2015 Paris climate conference of trying to keep global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Evidence and logic tell a different story. Woodside has set a voluntary target of cutting its direct pollution – known as scope 1 emissions – by 30% by 2030, compared with the average across recent high production years. Despite the company’s claims, it is significantly less than what scientists say is required from emitters in wealthy countries on the way to net zero by 2050.

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/feb/09/fossil-fuel-companies-wont-save-us-from-climate-change-we-need-governments-to-step-up

[2naSalit]

1. Banal buzzwords.