“In February, Electrek reported that fossil-fuel giant BP announced that it will become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner. One objective it said it would pursue is to “increase the proportion of investment into non-oil and gas businesses over time.”
BP also said it would restructure, and in June, CEO Bernard Looney announced it would cut 15% of its workforce, or 10,000 jobs. Electrek reported that the decision was due to the coronavirus impact on the economy, and Looney’s plan to shift the fossil-fuel company to green energy.
After a huge second-quarter loss of $16.8 billion and dividend cut of 50% to 5.25 cents, BP announced that it will cut oil and gas production by at least 1 million barrels a day by 2030, a 40% reduction on 2019 levels, and invest up to $5 billion a year into green energy. CNN reports:
BP’s plan to pivot away from oil after a century of exploration will involve major investments into bioenergy, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. It is also targeting 70,000 electric vehicle charging points, up from 7,500 at present. At the same time, BP will reduce its oil and gas refining portfolio and aims to raise $25 billion by selling assets over the next five years.
Looney said the move toward green energy is in the long-term interest of its stakeholders. Mel Evans, senior climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said:
BP has woken up to the immediate need to cut carbon emissions this decade. Slashing oil and gas production and investing in renewable energy is what Shell and the rest of the oil industry needs to do for the world to stand a chance of meeting our global climate targets. BP must go further, and needs to account for or ditch its share in Russian oil company, Rosneft. But this is a necessary and encouraging start.”
View the whole story here: https://electrek.co/2020/08/05/egeb-bp-fossil-fuels-green-energy-uk-architects-buildings/