London (AFP)
The British oil giant BP, under pressure to reduce its environmental impact in the face of the climate emergency, is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, while remaining very vague on how to achieve it.
This objective, unveiled Wednesday by the group, is carried by the new general manager Bernard Looney, in post for a week and who promises in a press release to "reinvent BP".
Oil groups, one of the most polluting industries on the planet, are expected at the turn by society and environmental movements, but also by more and more investors to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
BP explains that its commitment relates to polluting emissions from its own activities, as well as those linked to the oil and gas it produces.
It gives little information on the measures it intends to put in place, except that it wants to increase the proportion, still very limited, of its investments in greener activities, currently around 5%, without however, give figures on the share now targeted.
BP also wants to reduce the carbon intensity by 50% (the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of energy produced), by 2050, of the products it sells to its customers, and reduce emissions methane (a greenhouse gas much more powerful than CO2), in all of its hydrocarbon production operations.
"We need a rapid transition to carbon neutrality. It will certainly be a challenge but also a fabulous opportunity," said Looney.
Questioned by AFP just before his first speech as boss of BP, he explained that it was a "first step". "We will give details as we go" but "capital expenditure is crucial", he added.
During a presentation, he acknowledged that BP's oil and gas production "will decline over time" in order to meet its target, without excluding possible asset disposals.
He wants to build the least polluting energy portfolio possible by reducing investments in hydrocarbons to focus on the most profitable while making his group more efficient.
The leader assured that he would say more about his strategy next September. "We are seen by many as a source of the problem. I understood that," he said.
The NGOs, for their part, did not hide their doubts.
- Unanswered questions -
"Urgent questions remain unanswered. How are they going to achieve carbon neutrality? Will it be through carbon offset?" Wonders Charlie Kronick, a Greenpeace official for the UK.
The compensation consists in financing so-called "green" projects (such as reforestation) which allow to absorb CO2, in front of the carbon emissions of industrialists.
Teresa Anderson, for ActionAid, told AFP that the BP announcements show "how easy it is to use vague carbon neutrality targets while continuing as usual".
BP will also have to convince its shareholders, since it realizes most of its comfortable profits from hydrocarbons.
"We can only rethink energy if we are strong, able to pay dividends to our shareholders and generate enough cash to invest in low-carbon activities," said Looney.
The manager will undertake a reorganization of the group, by putting an end to the separation of its activities between upstream (exploration and production) and downstream (refining). Instead, it offers a more integrated group made up of 11 teams, one of which is dedicated to gas and green energy.
- Can do better -
The climate targets unveiled by BP remain among the most ambitious in the oil industry, even if the Norwegian Equinor aims for carbon neutrality by 2030.
Its competitor, the Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, is content to want to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2050. The French Total, brought to justice in France for climate "inaction", ensures that it will develop less polluting energies .
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated last month that the oil and gas sector could "do much more" to respond to the climate crisis and comply with the Paris agreements.
In a report released Wednesday, the NGO WWF warned that climate inaction could cost the global economy $ 479 billion annually by 2050, due to the loss of agricultural areas and coastal erosion .
© 2020 AFP