Green campaigners accuse BP boss Bernard Looney of rolling back climate promises

BP boss Bernard Looney has been accused of caving in to pressure as the man who took the reins with green promises watered down his emissions targets.

Environmental groups said the oil and gas giant was rolling back its previous ambitions which they had criticised at the time as not going far enough.

Mr Looney on Tuesday revealed a new plan to funnel an extra billion dollars (£830 million) every year into oil and gas projects until the end of the decade.

This comes on top of what BP was already planning to invest in fossil fuels.

He argued that it was necessary amid Russia’s war against Ukraine to “provide the energy the word needs today”.

“We need continuing near-term investment into today’s energy system – which depends on oil and gas – to meet today’s demands and to make sure the transition is an orderly one,” Mr Looney said.

The plan is to invest in shorter-term projects that pay back rapidly and require only a little new infrastructure, BP said.

But it also warned that it “anticipates retaining some oil and gas assets longer than previously envisaged”.

BP is now expected to produce around two million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of oil and gas every day in 2030, 25% less than in 2019.

This is well below a previous promise which saw the company slash production of the polluting fuels by around 40%.

As a result it expects emissions from its oil and gas production to fall 20%-30%, rather than a previous 35%-40% target.

The news was largely overshadowed by BP’s massive profit, which doubled last year, angering politicians who said the company is benefitting from the massively prices people are having to pay for their energy.

Non-governmental organisations also said the new investment in fossil fuels and the new emissions targets were damaging to the world’s climate hopes.

Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Connor Schwartz said: “With business booming BP has today revealed it’s rolling back on its recent climate promises.

“It’s clear that heating our homes will continue to cost the Earth in more ways than one.”

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said: “It should sicken people to their core that BP is responsible for more global historic emissions than most countries on Earth, yet has no plans to stop polluting even in the face of a global climate crisis.

“With a newly established Loss and Damage fund, it’s high time governments mandated fossil fuel companies to start paying up for their role in the climate crisis, starting with these enormous profits announced today.”

Mr Looney took over at BP in early 2020 with big promises to fundamentally change the organisation.

On Tuesday he pointed to the extra billion dollars he also plans to spend on “transition growth engines” which are meant to strengthen BP’s green credentials even as it produces more oil and gas than previously planned.

The money will go to bioenergy, electric vehicle charging, hydrogen and renewable power, BP said.

Mr Looney said: “We will increase our focus on the transition growth engines able to deliver nearer-term solutions – like EV chargers and sustainable aviation fuels – that can help people and businesses decarbonise sooner.

“And we will continue to build our hydrogen and renewables and power businesses for the longer term, based around projects where BP’s integrated approach can create significant additional value.”

Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets, said: “In a departure from its peers, it would appear that criticisms of its spending on renewables has started to sting and this morning the company said it plans to split its investment evenly between ‘transition growth engines’ and oil and gas.

“This is welcome given the low amounts BP spent in renewables this past 12 months.”