Greenpeace accuses European oil and gas companies of doing almost nothing on the energy transition. “They are not achieving their climate goals at all and are cheating us,” concludes a study of the annual reports of twelve major oil and gas companies. The environment organization is calling on governments to force them to stop producing fossil fuels.
The Greenpeace investigation led to a 110-page report written by German political scientist and energy specialist Steffen Bochold. According to annual reports issued by twelve major oil and gas companies, only 0.3% of their total production in 2022 came from renewable sources.
“the situation has deteriorated”
On average, 7.3 percent (€6.57 billion) of the 12 companies’ investments focused on green energy. The remaining 81.52 billion euros went to the usual fossil activities or even expansion. “And the situation will get worse in 2023,” says Greenpeace. Most European oil and gas companies plan to maintain or even increase their production until at least 2030, although most of the companies analyzed pledged to be net zero emissions by 2050.
As with coal, the NGO is calling on European governments to regulate the activities of energy companies in order to force them to “downsize” their industries. It may sound like “self-regulation doesn’t work.” For example, a mandatory target must be set to reduce oil consumption.
Dirty scores
The report – titled ‘The Dirty Dozen’ – compiles data from the 2022 annual reports of six multinational international oil companies based in Europe. These companies are Shell (UK and Netherlands), Total Energy (France), BP (UK), Equinor (Norway), Eni (Italy) and Repsol (Spain). In addition, six national oil and gas companies were also examined.
No Belgian company was analysed, but multinational companies have large projects in our country. For example, TotalEnergies operates the third largest refinery in Europe in the port of Antwerp. “However, there are no concrete plans to comply with the climate agreements,” said Greenpeace. Austrian oil company OMV owns 75% of the petrochemical group Borealis, which is expanding its presence in the port of Antwerp with a new propylene production facility.
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