The fossil fuel industry is worried about divestment. As extreme weather events play out on the news, a desperate industry is increasingly turning to greenwashing.
DeSmog notes that Exxon have joined the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative. This includes a “drop in the ocean” of $1 billion towards Carbon Capture and Storage and transition to gas. So nothing that is going to make any significant impact on climate change. But perhaps just enough to convince local leaders not to divest. We mustn’t be taken in. As the article notes, in this initiative there is:
- no commitment to works towards effective carbon pricing both globally and at national level,
- an onus on governments to first create policy framework without a commitment to lobby for this,
- no commitment to emissions or energy transition targets over the next 30 years to 2050,
- no commitment to bring all natural gas fugitive emissions across full supply chain below on percent,
- and no quantitative commitment to increase research and development spending on clean and renewable energy.
What these recent announcements do tell us is of the willingness of an unstainable industry to spend billions on shallow PR exercises to give it a sheen of acceptability. We call on local leaders to show their real commitment to our precious climate by completely divesting local government pension funds and instead investing in companies that are making a real difference with renewables.
Divest West Midlands 