‘Reality Check’: Damning report finds big oil firms’ climate plans could increase global warming by 2.4°C

Recent years have seen major oil companies making big climate pledges. However, a new report from Oil Change International suggests these are nothing but empty promises. 

The report examined climate plans from the eight largest US and European-based oil and gas producers and found that none of them were in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

Which companies did the report evaluate?

BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies are the companies.

For its report, Oil Change International assessed the companies' plans on 10 criteria. It found that all eight big oil companies ranked as "grossly insufficient" or "insufficient" on nearly all criteria, reports The Guardian. 

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US firms Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil were the "worst of the worst" and ranked "grossly insufficient" on all 10 of the criteria. 

In a statement, Allie Rosenbluth, US programme manager at Oil Change International, said, "American fossil-fuel corporations are the worst of the worst."

The report has been endorsed by over 100 climate groups internationally and marks the fourth annual "Big Oil Reality Check" from Oil Change International.

Increasing global warming

In a statement, David Tong, co-author of the analysis, and global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International, said: "There is no evidence that big oil and gas companies are acting seriously to be part of the energy transition."

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What more? The report also found that instead of limiting global warming, these companies' current oil and gas extraction plans could actually lead to more than 2.4°C of global temperature rise.

As per the report, the eight oil companies alone are on track to use 30 per cent of the world's remaining global carbon budget — to keep the global average temperature rise to 1.5C.

The report criticised the companies for their lack of ambition to curb fossil fuel exploration and production. None have plans to stop fossil fuel exploration or halt new extraction projects. In fact, six of the eight companies have explicit goals to increase oil and gas production.

Additionally, the report found that the companies' methods to curb greenhouse gas emissions lack integrity. None set comprehensive targets to rapidly and consistently curb emissions, and all plan to rely on methods like carbon capture and storage, which do not yet exist at scale, and carbon offsetting.

All eight firms also failed to "meet basic criteria for just transition plans for workers and communities where they operate," and none met "basic" human rights criteria.

(With inputs from agencies)