{"id":28481,"date":"2020-02-03T17:35:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T16:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=28481"},"modified":"2025-07-02T09:39:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:39:57","slug":"oil-industry-giants-like-bp-will-push-the-planets-climate-way-past-1-5oc-of-global-heating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/28481\/oil-industry-giants-like-bp-will-push-the-planets-climate-way-past-1-5oc-of-global-heating\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil industry giants like BP will push the planet\u2019s climate way past 1.5\u00baC of global heating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oil companies like BP are spending billions drilling for oil that, if burned, will heat the planet by way more than the “safe” 1.5\u00baC target agreed at the 2015 Paris climate summit. They think carbon capture technologies and billions of trees will clean up their mess. But this won’t work.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Climate change is already creating out-of-control floods and wildfires, and unbearable heatwaves all around the world. Australia has been on fire<\/a> for the last four months. Before that it was the Amazon<\/a>. Before that, California. And the climate has only warmed<\/a> by 0.8\u00baC so far.<\/p>\n\n

There is a plan to try to stop the climate warming beyond 1.5\u00baC \u2013 the target set up by the 2015 Paris agreement, which nearly all nations support. But even this level of warming will still cause damage. This is why it\u2019s such an important goal. <\/p>\n\n

BP plans to spend<\/a> $71 billion on new oil and gas in the next decade. This is totally incompatible with staying within 1.5\u00baC of warming. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) say that the 1.5\u00baC goal<\/a> is \u201cslipping out of reach\u201d unless emissions from burning fossil fuels are rapidly reduced, starting now. <\/p>\n\n

But oil companies are still planning on spending billions on drilling for new oil and gas over the next decade, when most people now know that the next decade is crucial to stop climate change. This was made clear in late 2018 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in their report<\/a> on the Paris agreement\u2019s 1.5\u00baC target. <\/p>\n\n

BP believe someone else will clean up their climate mess<\/h2>\n\n

BP needs to produce a plan to start phasing down their oil and gas production over the next 10 years. Hey, they could even take those billions and put them into clean energy. Just an idea.<\/p>\n\n

But they\u2019re not. They\u2019re still drilling for new oil, relying on future carbon emissions-capturing technologies \u2013 that even after decades of experimentation are still very, very far from being commercially viable \u2013 to trap and store their future pollution. They also think that more trees will be planted to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n

This is all fantasy planning. Essentially, they think that someone else will clean up their mess.<\/p>\n\n

Meeting the 1.5\u00baC target means reducing emissions and<\/em> planting trees<\/h2>\n\n

While planting more trees could help take some of the carbon out of the atmosphere, a lot of this has already been factored into the scenarios put together by scientists after the Paris agreement was signed.<\/p>\n\n

And much of the extra land BP assume could be used to plant more trees would have massive negative impacts on food production and human rights<\/a>. Again, they want other sections of society to have to change, while they just carry on as normal, making a killing out of oil.<\/p>\n\n

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Conclusions: negative emissions are popular because they avoid unpopular realities. @wim_carton<\/a> is interested in research question if carbon removal could ever be done to support near-term mitigation with co-benefits? pic.twitter.com\/TwnHYJbhbx<\/a><\/p>— @kimberlynicholas.bsky.social (@KA_Nicholas) October 17, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>