FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

22 March 2021

Contact:
Kelly Trout, kelly [at] priceofoil.org (EDT)
David Tong, david.tong [at] priceofoil.org (NZDT)

New CA100+ Benchmarks Reconfirm: The oil and gas industry is failing to act credibly on climate

Time for major investors to back up assessments with action

The Climate Action 100+ group of investors today released the first results of their “net zero” company benchmark assessment, which includes 39 significant oil and gas producers.

Kelly Trout, Senior Research Analyst at Oil Change International, had the following response:

“This analysis reconfirms the obvious. No Big Oil and Gas company has a serious plan to wind down its fossil fuel operations at a pace that comes anywhere close to aligning with the critical 1.5-degree limit. Our own Big Oil Reality Check analysis found failure across the board when it comes to oil majors’ climate commitments last September. Nothing that any major oil and gas company has said or done since then changes that assessment.

“Critically, this new report shows no oil and gas major has a short- or medium-term emissions reduction target aligned with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5ºC. Furthermore, while the oil and gas industry claims to care about the climate, it is failing utterly to put its money where its mouth is. Not a single oil major is committed to aligning its capital allocation with a 1.5ºC pathway.

“The findings of this report should be a call to action for investors within CA100+. The reality is that disclosure and superficial target-setting is not enough. Oil and gas companies can prove they are serious about the climate crisis by immediately ceasing to develop new oil and gas extraction and putting their production into a rapid decline. Short of that, there is no time left for investors to dilly dally. Either they use their voting power to pass resolutions that force companies like Shell, Total, and Exxon to begin immediately phasing out oil and gas extraction, or they ditch these dirty investments once and for all.”

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For more information, see: Big Oil Reality Check — Assessing Oil And Gas Climate Plans, Oil Change International, September 2020: https://priceofoil.org/2020/09/23/big-oil-reality-check/