Twenty fossil fuel companies are responsible for 35% of all energy-related carbon dioxide (CO 2) and methane emissions worldwide since 1965. This carries vast implications for fossil fuel producers. Until actions and investment behavior are brought into alignment with discourse, accusations of greenwashing appear well-founded.Įfforts to limit planetary warming to below 2☌ or 1.5☌ entail a transition to net-zero-emissions energy systems by 2050. 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. Moreover, the financial analysis reveals a continuing business model dependence on fossil fuels along with insignificant and opaque spending on clean energy. But these are dominated by pledges rather than concrete actions. Similarly, we observed increasing tendencies toward strategies related to decarbonization and clean energy. We found a strong increase in discourse related to “climate”, “low-carbon” and “transition”, especially by BP and 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). This study focuses on two American (Chevron, ExxonMobil) and two European majors (BP, Shell). Given a history of obstructive climate actions and “greenwashing”, there is a need to objectively evaluate current and historical decarbonization efforts and investment behavior. Some even claim to be transforming into clean energy companies. Recently, several majors are increasingly discussing clean energy and climate change, pledging decarbonization strategies, and investing in alternative energies. 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. The energy products of oil and gas majors have contributed significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and planetary warming over the past century.
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