GLOBAL POLICY
The Paris climate goals demand a rapid, just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. We’re pushing governments to lead the way by adopting policies to end oil and gas production.
OVERVIEW OF WORK
In order to achieve climate goals, governments and other decision makers must support a just and equitable move away from fossil fuels. We are pushing for precedent-setting leadership from governments to put policies in place to manage the decline of oil and gas and ensure a just transition for fossil-fuel dependent workers and communities.
Building from a growing group of first mover governments, we are pressuring for increasing numbers of national and regional governments to end new licenses and permits for oil and gas production, and to develop plans to wind down their existing production over time.
LATEST PROGRAM POSTS
BP is on course this year to announce the largest profits ever by a British company, with annual profits of over $21bn (£12bn). This is despite the company taking a billion dollar hit over the fallout from Hurricane Katrina. The company’s giant windfall is due to the recent high oil prices.
BP is not the only one making obscene amounts of money from oil at the moment. The US Department of Energy has forecast that OPEC’s revenues will increase by 10 per cent to a record $522bn this year – this would be the largest in real terms in 25 years.
Chris Finlayson obviously likes a big challenge. Having been running Shell’s highly controversial operations in Nigeria, where the company has repeatedly been cited for environmental pollution and for being complicit in human rights abuses, he has moved to head up Shell’s operations in Russia.
Wimps! Sissies! Cowardly! Un-American! That's what Cheney, Bush and co are, according to Times pundit Thomas Friedman, because they won't embrace alternative energy. He says "green is the new, red, white and blue," meaning that getting off our oil addiction is a "national security imperative" and that energy efficiency and conservation is "the most tough-minded, geostrategic and patriotic thing we can do."
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
This new report, “Public Enemies: Assessing MDB and G20 international finance institutions’ energy finance” looks at G20 country and MDB traceable international public finance for fossil fuels from 2020-2022 and finds they are still backing at least USD 47 billion per year in oil, gas, and coal projects.
This briefing assesses Shell’s fossil fuel extraction plans in light of Shell's appeal of a Dutch court verdict requiring the company to take responsibility for its climate pollution. Our analysis shows that Shell continues to plan for levels of oil and gas production and investment that undermine the world’s chances of curtailing climate disaster.
The countries that produce oil and gas from the North Sea (Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark) rank among the countries with the greatest economic capacity and responsibility to rapidly phase out extraction, and to finance just transitions to renewable energy solutions domestically and abroad.