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| One of Total's latest facilities, the Kaombo Norte Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel located off the coast of Angola (AFP Photo/Rodger BOSCH) |
Paris (AFP) - The oil industry, under mounting pressure from environmental activists to react more quickly to counter climate change, has begun to adapt its strategy but is struggling to convince critics it is doing enough.
Last week
activists, responding to a call from the Extinction Rebellion group, laid siege
to Shell's London headquarters whose windows were smashed.
Several
days later hundreds of activists blocked several symbolic sites in France,
including the headquarters of oil giant Total.
"They
are mastodons whose business model is based on fossil fuels and which don't
want to shift one iota because up until now they've made money that way,"
said Cecile Marchand, who heads up climate activities of the French branch of
the Friends of the Earth network of environmental protection groups.
"The
activities of these multinationals are not at all regulated today, and they
should be if we are to be serious about the idea of limiting global warming to
1.5 degrees" Celsius, she added, referring to the goal laid out in the
2015 Paris climate deal.
The
pressure isn't only coming from environmental activists.
"Investment
funds are now requiring oil and gas companies to explain how climate change
might affect a company's value," said David Elmes, a professor at Warwick
Business School.
"This
is driving some companies to be much more transparent about the emissions they
cause and their plans to reduce them," he added.
Oil to gas
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It can be
difficult to see a way to meet the Paris climate deal goals through
the smog
(AFP Photo/PATRICK KOVARIK)
|
Oil to gas
The big
actors in the sector -- BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total and
others -- have banded together in the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI),
which has a billion-dollar war chest to fund initiatives to reduce climate
change emissions.
The
companies are trying to limit their methane emissions, which escape when fossil
fuels are taken out of the ground and transported.
Along with
agriculture, the energy industry remains a key source of methane, which causes
more warming than carbon dioxide.
Other
energy giants are trying to counterbalance their carbon footprint, like the
Italian group ENI, which has promised to plant vast forests.
CEO Claudio
Descalzi has said "our objective is to achieve net zero emissions in our
upstream business by 2030" via emission reductions and offsets.
The
industry has also taken on board a strategic shift towards using more natural
gas -- which has a lighter carbon footprint than oil -- as well as producing
electricity via renewables like wind and solar.
Shell
recently surprised observers by declaring its ambition to become the world's
top electricity producer by 2030.
 |
One of
Total's latest facilities, the Kaombo Norte Floating
Production Storage and
Offloading vessel located
off the coast of Angola (AFP Photo/Rodger BOSCH)
|
'Evidence' lacking
But some
environmental groups point to the fact that energy companies are still pouring
most of their investments into pumping out more fossil fuels.
"These
companies want to continue exploiting fossil fuels as long as possible,"
said Marchand. "For them, climate change doesn't matter."
While the
spectacular plunge in oil prices in 2014 led to a drastic cut in investment in
exploration and development by energy firms, such spending is on the rise
again.
Plans by
oil and gas majors to spend $4.9 trillion on fuel exploration are incompatible
with the goal of the Paris climate deal to limit the rise in global temperature
rises, according to an analysis released earlier this week by the pressure
group Global Witness.
"The
evidence that people are looking for is whether companies are shifting the
billions they invest each year away from fossil fuels," said Elmes at
Warwick Business School.
"While
some companies are making commitments to do so ... the percentage being invested
in non-fossil fuel businesses are still small."
To achieve
the Paris targets, oil consumption needs to begin declining dramatically in the
next couple of years, according to estimates by the International Energy
Agency, which would only be possible by a major shift by the transportation
sector towards electric vehicles.
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
“… 4 - Energy (again)
The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet; again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!
Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much…
Water
Water
We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet.
There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four.”
There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four.”
New Mini Ice Age
"The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."
"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"
"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"
"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s."
"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one."