Royal
Dutch Shell,
BP and British Gas’s owner, Centrica, have all publicly thrown
their weight behind more ambitious EU emissions cuts, but none
supported the Brussels proposals for a tougher legally binding target
to reduce the EU’s emissions to net zero by 2050 in an official
consultation. The companies’ decision to withhold support for the
target has reignited criticism that major polluters are
“greenwashing” their plans for the future while remaining opposed
to ambitious climate action.
The
new target, to be debated by EU leaders in Brussels on Friday, would
increase the bloc’s carbon-cutting ambitions from 80%-95% below
1990 levels by 2050, to a carbon neutral target. The
European commission said a climate-neutral future is in line with the
Paris
climate agreement
objective to keep the global temperature increase to well below 2C
and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5C.
BP
and Shell
both voiced public support for the Paris commitments, neither
backed the EU’s plans for a net zero carbon target by 2050 in their
response to an official consultation.
“You
can’t claim to be playing your part in tackling the climate
emergency and then refuse to back the legislation we need to
succeed,” said John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace
UK. “While Big Oil CEOs proclaim their support for climate action,
their rigs are still heading out to drill for more oil and their
lobbyists are still busy undermining climate action.”
BP
used the consultation to warn against “promoting any one fuel as
the answer”, because the world “will need all forms of energy for
a long time to come”. It made no reference to a 2050 carbon target.
Shell
shied away from a specific timeline for the emissions cuts. It
Centrica,
RWE and E.On – lobbied for the EU to stick with existing plans to
reduce emissions by between 80% to 95%, despite concerns that these
cuts do not go far enough to limit severe global heating.
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