Zürcher Nachrichten - Energy majors go slow on green transition despite pressure

EUR -
AED 4.104306
AFN 77.088534
ALL 99.418435
AMD 432.750729
ANG 2.014513
AOA 1036.724537
ARS 1074.451554
AUD 1.643292
AWG 2.011389
AZN 1.904081
BAM 1.959102
BBD 2.256903
BDT 133.575108
BGN 1.958092
BHD 0.421186
BIF 3240.302737
BMD 1.117438
BND 1.444334
BOB 7.723878
BRL 6.162229
BSD 1.117784
BTN 93.422468
BWP 14.776034
BYN 3.658065
BYR 21901.788071
BZD 2.253057
CAD 1.517761
CDF 3208.165381
CHF 0.950204
CLF 0.037689
CLP 1039.944272
CNY 7.880067
CNH 7.870123
COP 4639.424479
CRC 579.967011
CUC 1.117438
CUP 29.612111
CVE 110.449653
CZK 25.087832
DJF 198.591551
DKK 7.466615
DOP 67.093069
DZD 147.657009
EGP 54.142736
ERN 16.761573
ETB 129.707168
FJD 2.459262
FKP 0.850995
GBP 0.839107
GEL 3.051043
GGP 0.850995
GHS 17.572299
GIP 0.850995
GMD 76.548818
GNF 9657.145107
GTQ 8.640639
GYD 233.829878
HKD 8.706464
HNL 27.727728
HRK 7.597474
HTG 147.485911
HUF 393.539807
IDR 16941.25656
ILS 4.226056
IMP 0.850995
INR 93.284241
IQD 1464.267663
IRR 47035.770303
ISK 152.262556
JEP 0.850995
JMD 175.615957
JOD 0.791709
JPY 160.704414
KES 144.194651
KGS 94.13132
KHR 4539.650463
KMF 493.181764
KPW 1005.693717
KRW 1488.975611
KWD 0.340897
KYD 0.931478
KZT 535.903542
LAK 24682.153929
LBP 100095.695125
LKR 341.03473
LRD 223.552742
LSL 19.623146
LTL 3.299505
LVL 0.675928
LYD 5.308136
MAD 10.838854
MDL 19.505046
MGA 5055.429199
MKD 61.70629
MMK 3629.395577
MNT 3797.054841
MOP 8.97236
MRU 44.421259
MUR 51.268486
MVR 17.164273
MWK 1938.031388
MXN 21.694955
MYR 4.698871
MZN 71.348848
NAD 19.62297
NGN 1831.984424
NIO 41.138777
NOK 11.71545
NPR 149.47891
NZD 1.791197
OMR 0.429669
PAB 1.117764
PEN 4.189604
PGK 4.375531
PHP 62.188829
PKR 310.5762
PLN 4.274593
PYG 8720.696587
QAR 4.075168
RON 4.972492
RSD 117.064808
RUB 103.07316
RWF 1506.852914
SAR 4.193246
SBD 9.282489
SCR 14.59602
SDG 672.143165
SEK 11.365691
SGD 1.442841
SHP 0.850995
SLE 25.530448
SLL 23432.113894
SOS 638.782227
SRD 33.752262
STD 23128.713955
SVC 9.780351
SYP 2807.596846
SZL 19.630258
THB 36.767793
TJS 11.881811
TMT 3.911034
TND 3.386908
TOP 2.617156
TRY 38.130123
TTD 7.602676
TWD 35.736832
TZS 3046.362208
UAH 46.202417
UGX 4141.127086
USD 1.117438
UYU 46.187217
UZS 14223.971001
VEF 4047978.463464
VES 41.096875
VND 27494.566096
VUV 132.664504
WST 3.125992
XAF 657.05254
XAG 0.035881
XAU 0.000426
XCD 3.019933
XDR 0.828396
XOF 657.055485
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.722751
ZAR 19.477573
ZMK 10058.288435
ZMW 29.592341
ZWL 359.814634
  • RBGPF

    3.5000

    60.5

    +5.79%

  • JRI

    -0.0800

    13.32

    -0.6%

  • NGG

    0.7200

    69.55

    +1.04%

  • BCC

    -7.1900

    137.5

    -5.23%

  • RELX

    -0.1400

    47.99

    -0.29%

  • SCS

    -0.3900

    12.92

    -3.02%

  • GSK

    -0.8200

    40.8

    -2.01%

  • RYCEF

    0.0000

    6.95

    0%

  • BTI

    -0.1300

    37.44

    -0.35%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    25.15

    +0.12%

  • CMSD

    0.0100

    25.02

    +0.04%

  • BCE

    -0.1500

    35.04

    -0.43%

  • RIO

    -1.6100

    63.57

    -2.53%

  • AZN

    -0.5200

    78.38

    -0.66%

  • VOD

    -0.0500

    10.01

    -0.5%

  • BP

    -0.1200

    32.64

    -0.37%

Energy majors go slow on green transition despite pressure
Energy majors go slow on green transition despite pressure / Photo: Hussein Faleh - AFP/File

Energy majors go slow on green transition despite pressure

Most oil majors are stepping up investment in green energy amid rising activist pressure but without abandoning fossil fuels, putting at risk reaching carbon neutrality in 2050.

Text size:

During the annual shareholders' meeting of British group Shell on Tuesday, activists shouted out "Go to hell Shell!"

BP got similar treatment, as did banking giant Barclays, which is accused of financing oil extraction.

French oil and gas company TotalEnergies will likely be targeted by activists at its shareholders' meeting on Friday.

Since 2021 the International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for a stop to new oil projects, to ensure the world meets the goal of keeping global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

But new oil fields continue to open.

- Not enough renewables investment -

The oil and gas industry, particularly in Europe, has set objectives to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

While investments by oil and gas firms in renewable energies and carbon capture have increased, they remain a marginal amount of overall spending.

According to the IEA, such spending rose from one percent in 2020 to five percent of total expenditures by last year, still only representing a quarter of what energy firms paid out to shareholders.

European firms such as TotalEnergies and Equinor are doing better than their peers, but "their investment in clean energy is tiny compared to their capital expenditure on oil and gas expansion", said David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International.

Other than renewables and carbon capture, energy firms also have expertise that could be put to use in the production of hydrogen, biogas, ethanol and low-carbon fuels, said Christophe McGlade, head of the IEA's energy supply unit.

"If they can direct more of their spending towards those technologies, that could really move the needle in terms of getting them to scale up, and getting the deployment levels we need to get on track with net zero," he said.

- Shift from oil to gas -

The emissions reduction efforts made by energy majors have concerned mostly their own operations, which represent only about 15 percent of their overall carbon footprint.

They have in particular been battling against methane leaks and reduced the burning of unwanted natural gas at oil fields.

Such measures have helped BP reduce its emissions by 41 percent from 2019 to 2022, and it has upped its 2030 target to a 50 percent reduction.

Even US oil majors, which have long resisted recognising the need to reduce emissions, have begun to do so. ExxonMobil plans to cut its proper emissions by a fifth by 2030, from 2016 levels.

But the bulk of the work is elsewhere: reducing the emissions from its products as they are burned in cars or furnaces, the so-called scope three indirect emissions that account for 85 percent of the sector's overall carbon footprint.

Reducing these implies lowering the use of oil, and eventually gas.

Yet oil and gas firms are not cutting investment in fossil fuel exploration and production. The IEA forecasts that it will rise this year to hit the 2019 pre-pandemic level.

BP announced earlier this year it is stepping up investment in oil and gas projects, knocking back its emissions reduction plans. Instead of a 35-40 percent drop in indirect emissions linked to its production by 2030, BP now targets a 20-30 percent reduction.

TotalEnergies plans to keep its indirect emissions steady this decade.

It also plans a shift from oil to gas. If oil accounted for 55 percent of sales in 2019, Total aims to reduce that to 30 percent this decade, with gas rising to half.

"The sector will be dominated by gas rather than oil by 2030," said Moez Ajmi, an energy expert at EY consulting firm.

For the IEA's McGlade, these forecasts by energy firms are revealing.

"If companies are banking on continued increases in oil and gas demand, they are implicitly assuming that we will not reach our net zero targets and not limit climate change," he said.

I.Widmer--NZN