Big energy companies are investing the equivalent of 5 percent of their record profits in green projects, an analysis by Channel 4 News, the main news program on UK television broadcaster Channel 4, revealed.
Channel 4 News analyzed the accounts of four of Europe’s largest oil and gas companies – BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, and Equinor. In the first six months of this year, they made a total of more than $88 billion in pre-tax profits.
BP invested just over $356 million into renewables and ‘low carbon’ in the first half of 2022 — equivalent to just 2.5 percent of its $14.5 billion profits. By comparison, it invested $4.5 billion in new oil and gas projects — more than 10 times its low carbon investments.
Shell invested equivalent to 6.3 percent of its $20.3 billion profits into low carbon energy, investing nearly three times more in oil and gas.
The Channel 4 analysis also found that all four companies were still investing more in fossil fuels than renewables and low-carbon energy.
BP, Shell, and Equinor only publish figures on renewables investment alongside what they class as ‘low carbon’ energy — which can include more contested, non-renewable energy technologies.
“What this shows is that their investment in renewables is a vanishingly small proportion of their overall investment, which is still very much focused on oil and gas.”
“In the UK we don’t have any control, no matter how much oil and gas we produce domestically, over the price that we pay for it. And ultimately, we are in an energy affordability crisis,” Tess Khan, of green energy campaign group Uplift, told Channel 4 News.
BP is planning low carbon investments of up to $6 billion by 2030. Shell says it will invest $24-$30 billion in UK energy in the next decade, more than 75 percent of it in low carbon energy.
TotalEnergies says 25 percent of its investment will be in renewables up to 2025. Equinor aims for more than 50 percent of its investment to be in renewables and low carbon by 2030.
It is worth noting that all four companies told Channel 4 News they would be increasing their investment in renewables.
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