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. 2022 Feb 16;17(2):e0263596.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263596. eCollection 2022.

The clean energy claims of BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell: A mismatch between discourse, actions and investments

Affiliations

The clean energy claims of BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell: A mismatch between discourse, actions and investments

Mei Li et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

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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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Frequency of keyword mentions in annual reports (normalized by total word count).
Note: Results for ExxonMobil are affected by the style of reports examined (all years except 2020 are summary reports).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Business strategy analysis for European majors (2009–2020).
(a) Business strategy analysis for European majors. (b) Business strategy analysis for American majors. Note on scores: “+1” indicates pledges and actions that implement or reinforce a strategy or commitment in that year; “-1” indicates pledges and actions that contradict or hamper a strategy or commitment in that year; and “0” indicates that no evidence of pledges and actions in either direction was found.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Total annual scores for all business strategies (2009–2020).
(a) Total scores for pledges (b) Total scores for actions. Note: Total possible scores each year for pledges and actions are 14 and 11, respectively (1 for each indicator).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Upstream CAPEX and earnings.
(a) Upstream CAPEX (2009~2020) (b) Upstream earnings ratio (2009~2020). Note: BP, Shell, and Chevron incurred negative earnings in 2015 and 2016, due to decreased oil prices. In 2020, all four majors suffered huge losses upstream and across the whole business chain due to reduced oil demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trends in these three years should thus not be taken into account. BP also incurred huge losses in 2010 due to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2013, because of the loss of downstream and other business, BP’s total earnings reached only $4,950 million, though upstream earnings were $8,848 million. BP’s earnings ratio during these two years should therefore also be ignored.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Average daily fossil fuel production.
(a) Total hydrocarbon production for gas and oil combined (2009~2020). (b) Incremental production volumes for oil and gas relative to 2009 (2010~2020).
Fig 6
Fig 6. Fossil fuel reserves and petroleum sales.
(a) Fossil fuel reserves in the incremental ratio (2010~2020). (b) Petroleum sales in the incremental ratio (2010~2020). Note: Results for Chevron are not included in (b), since its data on chemical sales are not publicly disclosed. BP’s data on chemical sales in 2020 is not released.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Low-carbon energy investment and electricity generation from clean energy.
(a) Disclosed investment in low-carbon energy production and development, as a proportion of total CAPEX (2010–Q3 2018). Source: CDP Investor Research [81]. Note: “Other” indicates hydro; carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); frontier power; and smart technologies. (b) Electricity generation from clean energy (2009–2019). Source: S&P Global Platts [82]. Note: “Other” indicates other renewables used to generate electricity.

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