Oil giant BP is set to scale back its climate targets, again. In 2023 it pledged to decrease its oil and gas production by 25% on 2019 levels by the end of the decade. It had been 40% back in 2020.
BP shareholders, motivated by short-term profit and dividends, have been restless as BP lags behind its rivals such as Chevron, Shell, Exxon Mobil and TotalEnergies – all have even less ambitious or non-existent climate targets.
One investor told the Financial Times: “We’d all love them to build more in renewables but from a shareholder point of view, returns are not there”.
And in a nutshell, that’s why capitalism can’t solve the climate crisis.
For a transition to green energy to be planned and implemented, the energy industry needs to be nationalised under democratic workers’ control and management, with no compensation for the fat-cat owners.
