Energy giants are abandoning recent commitments to refocus on renewables and kowtowing to US President Donald Trump’s geopolitical ambitions.
Emboldened by pre-election slogans such as ‘drill, baby, drill’, fossil fuel companies are now looking exploit the White House’s renewed backing of oil and gas as the world’s leading energy sources.
In a bid to secure the backing of the administration, Exxon first began referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, responding to one of earliest Executive Orders issued during Trump’s second term in the Oval Office. Google Maps has now listed the body of water under the disputed new name for all users in the US.
Critics argue these ‘renaming’ decisions are clearly being taken in a bid to curry favour for both energy and tech contracts up for grabs under the new American regime. UK and European oil and gas companies BP and Shell have now done the same, while also announcing combined profits of £26.2billion.
Both companies had already announced a decline in profit margins, with BP slumping by 36% and Shell’s margins also disappointing shareholders. However, these numbers still far outweigh UK’s entire spending commitment on global environmental efforts. Downing Street currently allocates £11.6billion on international climate finance, to be spent between the 2021-2022 and 2025-2026 financial years.
‘Households and families across our country are suffering from eye-watering bills and a broken energy market, while BP and other fossil fuel giants are reporting astronomical profits,’ said Mark Ruskell MSP, climate spokesperson for the Scottish Green Party. ‘Our reliance on fossil fuels is hammering household budgets, and it is destroying our planet. Global temperatures are breaking records while extreme weather events are becoming the new normal.’
More energy:
Data centre operators warn ‘sustainability overconfidence’ threatens green progress
Image: Jethro Carullo via Unsplash