The fossil fuel giants saw income slump in 2024, but still made more than double what Britain spends on climate tech and mitigation.
Combined, BP and Shell made £26.2billion in 2024, dwarfing the £11.6billion Downing Street will spend on net zero, climate change mitigation, adaptation, and technologies globally between 2021 and 2026.
Figures have been met with alarm and anger from activists and environmental scientists, arriving the same week as seven-in-ten of the world’s largest economies failed to file new nationally determined contributions for greenhouse gas reduction.
Stipulated in the Paris climate agreement, these ‘blueprint’ documents were supposed to be updated and filed Monday to show how nations were intending to cut emissions between now and 2050. But the deadline passed with 170 administrations failing to file their latest roadmaps.
Bucking the trend, the UK is the only major economy to meet the NDC deadline and submit a plan which still keeps 1.5C in sight. This is heavily reliant on the rapid expansion of green technologies and advanced net zero tools, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), AI, IoT and sensor networks, smart grids and digital twins.
Simon Stiell, UN climate chief, has suggested many NDCs will be submitted in time for this November’s COP30 summit. This would need to happen before the end of September. ‘[The] vast majority of countries have indicated that they [will] submit new plans this year’ he said, adding that ‘taking a bit more time to ensure these plans are first-rate makes sense.’
Nevertheless, concerns are mounting for the future of net zero and emissions reductions efforts. President Donald Trump’s White House administration has reiterated the intention to ‘drill, baby, drill’ for more fossil fuels and the US – the world’s second largest greenhouse gas contributor – is pulling out of the 2016 Paris agreement for a second time. Since this was announced, New Zealand, Russia and Argentina have expressed their desire to leave the global treaty.
Further fuelling fears, BP, which saw a 36% slump in profits during 2024 to $8.9billion, has confirmed the ‘foundations for growth’ are now being laid as part of a fundamental ‘new direction’ for the firm. Chief Executive Murray Auchincloss has already explained this involves a $2billion structural cost reduction, and hasn’t ruled out further divestment from renewables.
BP onshore wind operations are already set to be sold in the US, a new contract for the largest oil and gas field in India alongside state-owned giant ONGC has been secured, and 30 large scale hydrocarbon projects are about to be paused or stopped. Meanwhile, analysts suggest Elliot Investment Management’s recent acquisition of a 5% stake in BP is another sign of further divestitures from green energy. The ‘aggressive activist hedge fund’ has a strong record of shaking up corporations through shareholder and board pressure.
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Image: Simon Cheung via Unsplash
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