BP scales back climate targets of reducing emissions as profits hit record

As regular readers will have picked up upon there is a common theme among oil and gas companies. That of using their money, influence and PR to maintain our addiction to their highly profitable and polluting hydro carbons while at the same time making aspirational but never fulfilled claims of becoming a green and sustainable.

Well, check this out.

BP has now changed its previous target of reducing emissions by 40% before 2030 is now reduced to 20% to 30%.

Why? In order to meet increased demand for Oil and Gas. You just cannot make this extreme hypocrisy up. 33 million people were displaced in floods in Pakistan in 2022. It did not make western news and certainly not the BP annual report. Environment, Sustainability Governance gives way to self serving profits yet again.

Energy giant BP has reported record annual profits as it scaled back plans to reduce the amount of oil and gas it produces by 2030.

The company's profits more than doubled to $27.7bn (£23bn) in 2022, as energy prices soared after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Other energy firms have seen similar rises, with Shell reporting record earnings of nearly $40bn last week.

It has led to calls for energy firms to pay more tax as people's bills soar.

BP boss Bernard Looney said the British company was "helping provide the energy the world needs" while investing the transition to green energy.

But it came as the firm scaled back plans to cut carbon emissions by reducing its oil and gas output.

The company - which was one of the first oil and gas giants to announce an ambition to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 - had previously promised that emissions would be 35-40% lower by the end of this decade.

However, on Tuesday it said it was now targeting a 20-30% cut, saying it needed to keep investing in oil and gas to meet current demands.