Section:GDN 1N PaGe:24 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 20:15 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^24) National
Jillian Ambrose
Major oil and gas companies have
invested $50bn (£40.6bn) in fossil
fuel projects that undermine global
eff orts to avert a runaway climate cri-
sis, according to a new report.
Since the start of last year, fossil
fuel companies have spent billions on
plans to extract oil and gas from tar
sands, deepwater fi elds and the Arc-
tic, despite the risks to the climate and
shareholder returns.
CarbonTracker, a fi nancial think-
tank, found that ExxonMobil, Shell,
Chevron and BP each spent at least
30% of their investment in 2018 on pro-
jects that are inconsistent with climate
targets, and would be “deep out of the
money in a low-carbon world”.
Andrew Grant, author of the report,
said: “Every oil major is betting heavily
against a 1.5C world and investing in
projects that are contrary to the Paris
goals .” The 2015 Paris agreement aims
to keep the global temperature rise this
century below 2C above pre-industrial
levels and try to limit it to 1.5C.
The study is the fi rst to analyse indi-
vidual projects to test whether they
are compliant with a 1.5C world, and
whether they would be fi nancially sus-
tainable in a low-carbon world.
It found that none of the largest oil
and gas companies have been mak-
ing investment decisions in line with
global climate goals, and risk wasting
$2.2 t n by 2030 if governments take a
tougher stance on carbon emissions.
Last year Shell said it would spend
$13bn on a liquefi ed natural gas project
in Canada and ExxonMobil agreed to
invest $2.6b n in the Aspen project in
Canada, the fi rst completely new oil
sands project in fi ve years in Canada.
“Investors should challenge com-
panies’ spending on new fossil fuel
production. The best way to both
preserve shareholder value in the tran-
sition and align with climate change
goals will be to focus on low-cost
projects that will deliver the highest
returns,” Grant said.
The report contradicts the rheto-
ric of many oil executives who have
claimed to support the Paris goals and
vowed to invest in renewable energy.
A spokesperson for Shell said: “We
agree that the world is not moving fast
enough to tackle climate change. As
the energy system evolves, so is our
business, to provide the mix of prod-
ucts that our customers need. ”
A report from the UN Environment
Programme has revealed that global
investment in renewable energy pro-
jects over the last decade is on track
to reach $2.6 tn by the end of this year.
The investment boom has almost
quadrupled the world’s total renew-
able energy capacity from 414GW at
the end of 2009 to an expected total of
1,650GW by the end of this year.
Inger Andersen, the executive
director of the UN Environment Pro-
gramme, said: “Investing in renewable
energy is investing in a sustainable and
profi table future, as the last decade
of growth in renewables has shown.”
The report, co-authored by Bloom-
berg New Energy Finance, found solar
power attracted about half of the total
investment in renewables over the last
decade and ha d grown from 25GW in
2010 to an expected 638GW by the
close of 2019.
Jon Moore, chief executive of
BloombergNEF, said the sharp
falls in the cost of electricity from
wind and solar over recent years
Big oil and gas fi rm
plans ‘inconsistent’
with climate goals
PA Media
Two bodies have been found at a house
by emergency crews who discovered a
two-year-old child unharmed.
Detectives in Burton-on-Trent in
Staff ordshire are investigating the
“unexplained deaths” of a man aged
32 and a woman aged 23.
Police were called to a semi-
detached house at a bout 11pm on
Wednesday. Neighbours said a couple
thought to be from Eastern Europe had
been living there, along with a man
believed to be a relative.
A neighbour named the couple as
Lana Nemceva and Kiril Nemcev. He
said of Nemceva: “She is so lovely and
a happy, happy girl. It’s a beautiful and
lovely family. This has all surprised
me. I’m so sad to hear about it.”
At the scene yesterday, forensic sci-
ence offi cers could be seen entering the
property. A police offi cer stood guard
outside, as three cars were cordoned
off on the drive and a grass verge.
Police said : “The deaths are being
treated as unexplained at this time
and postmortems will take place in
due course. Formal identification
has not yet taken place. A cordon is in
place as forensic inquiries continue
and detectives work to establish the
circumstances around the deaths. ”
Child aged two
rescued from
house containing
two dead bodies
▲ A police offi cer stands guard at
the cordoned-off house in Burton
ha d “transformed the choice facing
policy-makers”.
“These technologies were always
low-carbon and relatively quick to
build. Now, in many countries around
the world, either wind or solar is the
cheapest option ,” he said.
But Anders en warned that govern-
ments could not be complacent about
the growth of renewable energy if they
hoped to meet the UN climate targets.
“Global power-sector emissions
have risen about 10%. It is clear that
we need to rapidly step up the pace of
the global switch to renewables if we
are to meet international climate and
development goals,” she said.
“ Renewable energy made up 12.9%
of the world’s total electricity use last
year, up from 11.6% the year before.
30%
Percentage of Shell, ExxonMobil, BP
and Chevron spending in 2018 that is
‘inconsistent’ with limiting warming
$2.2tn
Amount the big energy companies
risk wasting by 2030 if governments
take a tougher stance on emissions
▲ Findings by the energy thinktank
CarbonTracker contradict oil chiefs’
rhetoric about investing in renewables
PHOTOGRAPH: MICHAEL MCDONALD/ALAMY
RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws