"These dirty fossil fuel
companies are not getting the message, let alone acting on the urgency of the
climate crisis."
Despite outward claims from
the fossil fuel industry that it shares the public's concern over the rapidly
warming planet, a new study shows that oil and gas companies are actively and
aggressively undermining climate targets agreed to by world governments.
The thinktank Carbon Tracker
released a report entitled
"Breaking the Habit" on Thursday, detailing the immense investments
powerful companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, and BP have continued to
make in offshore drilling, tar sands, and fracking projects in the years
after nearly
200 countries agreed that the warming of the globe must be limited to
1.5 degrees Celsius.
The companies have invested
$50 billion in climate-warming fossil fuel projects since the beginning of
2018, according to the report.
"Every oil major is
betting heavily against a 1.5C world and investing in projects that are
contrary to the Paris goals," report author Andrew Grant told The
Guardian.
Author and 350.org co-founder
Bill McKibben shared The Guardian's report on the study on social media,
saying its findings detail the "insane greed" of the fossil fuel
industry at the expense of the planet.
At least 30 percent of the
companies' investments over the past two years have gone towards the kinds of
energy projects that have been found to pump as much as 37
billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year as well as
endangering marine life, drinking water sources, and people who live near
fracking and pipeline projects.
"Last year, all of the
major oil companies sanctioned projects that fall outside a 'well below two
degrees' budget on cost grounds," the report reads, referring to the goal
of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
levels—and more ambitiously, under 1.5 degrees.
"These will not deliver
adequate returns in a low-carbon world," Carbon Tracker said.
The continued investments in
new fossil fuel projects come three years after the Paris climate agreement
entered into force, when the E.U. pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 40
percent compared to its 1990 levels and the U.S. agreed to slash its emissions by
28 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Since the agreement was forged
fossil fuel companies have claimed to be working towards reducing their
emissions.
"We agree that the world
is not moving fast enough to tackle climate change," a spokesperson for
Shell told The Guardian. "As the energy system evolves, so is our
business."
Critics on social media said
Friday that Carbon Tracker's report demonstrates how, with Shell's plans for a
$13 billion natural gas investment and plans by BP and ExxonMobil to invest in
an offshore project in Angola, profits still trump preserving the planet for
powerful companies—priorities which will cause suffering for communities that
have contributed the least to the climate crisis.
"None of the largest oil
and gas companies are making investment decisions in line with the global
climate goals," tweeted the group End Water Poverty.
Grant suggested that
shareholders at Exxon, Shell, and other oil and gas companies must urge
executives to shift away from emission-causing projects.
"Investors should
challenge companies' spending on new fossil fuel production," Grant
told The Guardian.
But others on social media
said the power to stop companies and their wealthy investors lies with
policymakers who need the political will to bring the fossil fuel sector
to heel.
"These dirty fossil fuel
companies are not getting the message, let alone acting on the urgency of the
climate crisis," wrote British Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley.
"But it is governments who must hold them to account, and end the
subsidies that are funding their environmental destruction."
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