Are you shocked by this news? Or is it exactly what you would expect?
Major oil companies have made splashy climate pledges to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, but a new report suggests those plans do not stand up to scrutiny.
“There is no evidence that big oil and gas companies are acting seriously to be part of the energy transition,” David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International, who co-authored the analysis, said in a statement.
The report’s authors used 10 criteria and ranked each aspect of each company’s plan on a spectrum from “fully aligned” to “grossly insufficient” and found all eight companies ranked “grossly insufficient” or “insufficient” on nearly all criteria.
The US firms Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil each ranked “grossly insufficient” on all 10 criteria.
“American fossil-fuel corporations are the worst of the worst,” Allie Rosenbluth, US program manager at Oil Change International, said in a statement.
The authors found that the companies’ current oil and gas extraction plans could lead to more than 2.4C of global temperature rise, which would probably usher in climate devastation. The eight firms alone are on track to use 30% of the world’s remaining global carbon budget to keep global average temperature rise to 1.5C.
Leaders of capitalist industry will continually lie, cheat, and steal. They will do anything to make a profit. Business As Usual must go on!
Of course no one is shocked. We have evidence that they have been lying to us for the last... (checks notes)... forever. Why would anyone with half a brain think they suddenly grew some ethics?
Its almost as if the entire environmental movement exists for the sole purpose of distracting humanity from the fact that oligarchs, billionaires and their techbro wizards are the true existential threat.
Nothing will improve until enough of humanity decides to do something about the infestation of social parasites known as the billionaire class.
@breadandcircuses
The truly disappointing thing is that if any companies had the resources to pioneer and lead the transition from fossil fuels -starting decades ago - it was the oil companies. But corporate psychosis left them wedded to what they knew, and an unwillingness to lead into new territories that were not currently a part of their immediate business. They could have been the heroes, but chose to be the villains that potentially kill all of us.