We’re Making Lots of Money on Oil, so Screw the Climate

BP makes huge profits There’s a lot of money for oil these days, so it wants you to ignore all the lofty promises it made about the climate a few years ago.

On Tuesday, the company became the youngest oil major to actually publish anything stunning returns from the fourth fiscal quarter. Thanks in part to the global energy crisis sparked by the conflict in Ukraine, oil producers have been rolling in dough over the past year Companies like ExxonMobil and have chevron Post record profits. BP is no exception. On Tuesday, the company announced that its 2022 earnings were about $27.7 billion. more than twice the profit it posted in 2021. Not bad!

And thanks to that big ole number, BP says it’s going to slow its progress on the whole climate action thing. In 2020 – when the industry experienced a crisis in which oil prices fell so low that they briefly negative—BP called it would reduce CO2 emissions from its oil and gas production by 35% up to 40% by 2030. However, there is a new target hidden in the financial news released on Tuesday: TThe company has downgraded his target to 20% and 30% over the same period so it can produce more and more of the sweet, sweet oil that’s in so much demand right now after oil prices have soared this summer.

“Ultimately, we are responding to what society wants,” explains CEO Bernard Looney told reporters about the changes on Tuesday. In an apparent attempt to offset the bad news, Looney emphasized in a LinkedIn post that the company would invest an additional $8 billion in initiatives “like bioenergy and electric vehicle charging that can help people and businesses go low-carbon sooner.”

BP has been around for a long time at the top of the oil companies Try green marketing for size. The Climate and renewable targets introduced in 2020 announced under the title “From International Oil Company to Integrated Energy Company” are among the most aggressive put forth by an oil and gas company. (That does not mean a lot, considering none of the net-zero promises being made by oil majors really mean a damn when it comes to the science, but at least BP is trying a little harder than, say, Exxon.)

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The is not the first time that BP has renounced green promises. In the early 2000s, the company formerly known as British Petroleum decided to rename itself Beyond Petroleum, revamped its logo and invested in a number of solar and wind projects. The company ended quietly Sale of these renewable assets to pay for two expensive oil spills, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Oops!

Tuesday’s announcement emphasizes the danger of letting the fox run the chicken coop in the energy transition. In recent years, oil majors, sensing a sea change in how society views their products, have positioned themselves as a core part of the solution, a wealth of new terminologies greenwash their efforts and invest heavily technological solutions for CO2 emissions. However, the science is clear: IIn order to avert the climate catastrophe, the world must abandon fossil fuels as quickly as possible. As BP’s announcement makes clear, while it still goes to make money off fossil fuels, the oil companies cannot be trusted to do what needs to be done.

And while Looney may mistakenly attribute BP’s drive to make money from oil to what “society wants,” companies like his might still have to pay the rent.

“This is a temporary situation,” said Nick Butler, who was formerly a senior executive at BP and is now a visiting professor at Kings College. said the BBC. “Oil and gas prices are going down and the windfall these companies are making won’t last.”