The sad truth is consumption Oilcontinues to increase despite the climate crisis that the planet is experiencing. OPEC says it will rise 2.7% for next year unless the war in Ukraine and inflation affect the economy more than expected. In any case, there is oil for a while, as is the case with coal and natural gas, other fossil fuels are responsible for the fact that humanity sees its own existence under threat.
And this is to begin with, big oil companies are reluctant to abandon the production of “fuel of the apocalypse”, as they are sometimes called, and they are fighting stubbornly to decarbonize the planet. In the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “that’s how they grabbed humanity by the throat”, so industry, traffic and much of the economy depend on oil.
This is not a metaphor. A study by the Influence Map climate change analysis lab revealed a few months ago: Oil companies spend $750 million each year on climate marketing, but plan to devote only 12% of their total investment to decarbonisation. In other words, despite repeated announcements about their environmental commitments, the reality is that the practice shows they are not planning to correct their course, at least not immediately.
The “Big Oil’s Agenda 2022” research is the result of an analysis of more than 3,000 messages and announcements initiated by the five largest hydrocarbon companies worldwide: British BP, Dutch Shell, French Total, and American companies ExxonMobil and Chevron. 60% of all these messages included references to environmental commitments. According to the study, all these ads (in media, billboards, blogs, social networks, etc.) cost $750 million in a single year.
This data is then compared to the amount these companies plan to allocate to low carbon activities in 2022, which is only 12 percent of their total investment budget in their property and ranges from $87,000 to $96,000 million.
When the authors of the report companies were asked to provide data to prove their compliance with environmental commitments, none provided themAccording to Faye Holder, a co-author of the report and a researcher at Influence Map.
This conflict between this kind of avalanche of pro-climate messages and anti-climate actions is a case of greenwashing for Holder.
Powerful “lobbies” of oil companies
And this oil companies and gas and coal companies create authentic lobbiesOrganized in a disciplined and efficient manner, is acting to try to minimize the damage caused by tackling climate change. This was demonstrated, for example, in Glasgow at the recent COP26 conference, which brought together different countries to continue on the road to decarbonisation.
The largest delegation present at that convention did not correspond to any country, however important, but to the fossil fuel industry. According to conservation organization Global Witness, after looking at the exhibitor list, more than 500 people who attended COP26 were part of this industry. But their numbers were even higher at COP27. Their aim was to press in favor of the interests of hydrocarbon companies, which they felt should be banned from entering, as this organization suspected.
Global Witness spokesman Murray Worthy said: “One of the main reasons why 25 years of climate talks at the UN have not resulted in any real reductions in carbon emissions is the influence of the oil lobby.”
More and more entities are reminding that as a precedent: The World Health Organization (WHO) did not take the tobacco ban seriously until all representatives of the tobacco industry were removed from the WHO meetings.where they go to relativize and question the dangers of tobacco.
But things don’t go that way. The chairman of COP28, which will be held this year in 2023, is none other than a sultan affiliated with one of the largest oil companies on the planet.. Hundreds of organizations and experts called for his dismissal at the start of the climate summit.
One of the largest oil lobby groups identified at COP26 was the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), whose spokesperson Alessandre Vitelli claimed its raison d’etre is “to find more efficient means in the market to reduce emissions.” It includes not only fossil fuel companies, but also companies from other sectors.
Inadequate emission reduction targets
Beyond these industry efforts in public relations and political influence, the reality is The decarbonisation targets of the big companies in the sector are clearly insufficient. To achieve the goals set in the Paris Agreement.
This was revealed by a published study. Nature Communication and Climate Analytics, which concluded that the decarbonisation scenarios publicly committed by companies like BP, Shell or Equinor were not ambitious enough to prevent the planet from rising above 1.5ºC before 2100.
Even that of British Petroleum, the most daring strategy of those analyzed, results in an average maximum warming of 1.65ºC, which is very high. Respecting the Paris Agreements because, as the researchers say, “every fraction of a degree counts.”
Bill Hare, executive director of Climate Analytics, considers it “important that oil companies are not allowed to create scenarios that do not meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement.”
As a result of all this, a few days ago, 1,000 professionals in the health sector and 200 organizations from around the world signed an agreement under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO). Call on the governments of the planet to urgently ratify the Fossil Fuels Nonproliferation Treatya figure reminiscent of what was done with nuclear weapons decades ago to limit atomic arsenals.
“Today’s reliance on fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. “From a health perspective, this is an act of self-sabotage,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
These professionals and organizations remind in their writings that the threat posed by hydrocarbons to human health is not a general or abstract threat. The exact opposite. “Air pollution kills more than seven million people a year worldwide”they are pointing.
In short, the dirty energy industry seems to be doing everything possible to prevent it from being withdrawn and converted to sustainable sources. The challenge for humanity is to accelerate the transition to an energy future without oil, gas and coal.
Antonio Guterres: “The same tactics used by tobacco companies a few decades ago”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is one of the main voices opposing the still domination of the planet by oil companies and other dirty energy industries. At a summit with leading world leaders this summer in June, he didn’t hesitate to scold them openly: “You represent the largest economies in the world, as well as the biggest emitters. Your first mission is to protect people. “Nothing could be clearer than the danger of the proliferation of fossil fuels,” Guterres said in his speech at the Forum on Energy and Climate Major Economies.
Guterres also condemned the pressure exerted by the gas, oil and coal industries on governments and economies: fossil fuel producers are stepping on humanity’s throatHe added that these pressures are “the same ugly tactics Big Tobacco used decades ago.” “As in the tobacco industry, HE lobby should not escape responsibility for fossil fuels and their financial accomplices”, added the UN Secretary-General. With these last words, he implied that the big banks on the planet continue to finance dirty energies with huge sums and without it they would not be able to survive.
…….
Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]