<
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>
"We have an early contender for the least surprising newsflash of the year:
fossil fuel companies will not, of their own volition, save us from climate
breakdown. The oil and gas multinational BP revealed on Tuesday that it set a
record annual profit last year, reaching a staggering US$27.7bn thanks to
Vladimir Putin’s murderous ego pushing global fossil fuel prices into the
stratosphere. It more than doubled its 2021 profit.
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."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
