The clean energy claims of BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell: A mismatch between discourse, actions and investments.
The clean energy claims of BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell: A mismatch between discourse, actions and investments.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0263596
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发表时间：
2022
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Asuka J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Li M;Trencher G;Asuka J
在过去的世纪里，石油和天然气巨头的能源产品对全球温室气体排放和地球变暖做出了重大贡献。因此，如果不对基于化石燃料的商业模式进行深刻的变革，到本世纪中叶实现全球经济脱碳以避免危险的气候变化就不可能实现。最近，几个主要石油公司越来越多地讨论清洁能源和气候变化，承诺脱碳战略，并投资替代能源。有些人甚至声称要转型为清洁能源公司。鉴于阻碍性气候行动和“漂绿”的历史，有必要客观地评估当前和历史上的脱碳努力和投资行为。本研究的重点是两个美国（雪佛龙，埃克森美孚）和两个欧洲石油巨头（BP，壳牌）。我们使用2009-2020年收集的数据，从三个方面比较了脱碳和清洁能源转型活动的程度：（1）年度报告中的关键词使用（话语）;（2）业务战略（承诺和行动）;（3）化石燃料的生产，支出和收益沿着清洁能源投资（投资）。我们发现，与“气候”、“低碳”和“转型”相关的话语大幅增加，尤其是英国石油公司和壳牌公司。同样，我们观察到与脱碳和清洁能源相关的战略越来越倾向于。但这些都是承诺，而不是具体行动。此外，财务分析显示，商业模式继续依赖化石燃料，沿着清洁能源支出微不足道且不透明。因此，我们的结论是，向清洁能源商业模式的过渡并没有发生，因为投资和行动的规模与话语不符。在行动和投资行为与话语保持一致之前，对绿色清洗的指责似乎是有根据的。
The energy products of oil and gas majors have contributed significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and planetary warming over the past century. Decarbonizing the global economy by mid-century to avoid dangerous climate change thus cannot occur without a profound transformation of their fossil fuel-based business models. Recently, several majors are increasingly discussing clean energy and climate change, pledging decarbonization strategies, and investing in alternative energies. Some even claim to be transforming into clean energy companies. Given a history of obstructive climate actions and “greenwashing”, there is a need to objectively evaluate current and historical decarbonization efforts and investment behavior. This study focuses on two American (Chevron, ExxonMobil) and two European majors (BP, Shell). Using data collected over 2009–2020, we comparatively examine the extent of decarbonization and clean energy transition activity from three perspectives: (1) keyword use in annual reports (discourse); (2) business strategies (pledges and actions); and (3) production, expenditures and earnings for fossil fuels along with investments in clean energy (investments). We found a strong increase in discourse related to “climate”, “low-carbon” and “transition”, especially by BP and Shell. Similarly, we observed increasing tendencies toward strategies related to decarbonization and clean energy. But these are dominated by pledges rather than concrete actions. Moreover, the financial analysis reveals a continuing business model dependence on fossil fuels along with insignificant and opaque spending on clean energy. We thus conclude that the transition to clean energy business models is not occurring, since the magnitude of investments and actions does not match discourse. Until actions and investment behavior are brought into alignment with discourse, accusations of greenwashing appear well-founded.
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