{"id":47896,"date":"2020-02-12T13:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=47896"},"modified":"2020-02-12T13:00:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T13:00:59","slug":"bp-is-responsible-for-the-oil-it-sells-no-one-else-is-and-on-that-basis-it-is-clear-it-ha-no-intention-of-being-a-net-zero-carbon-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2020\/02\/12\/bp-is-responsible-for-the-oil-it-sells-no-one-else-is-and-on-that-basis-it-is-clear-it-ha-no-intention-of-being-a-net-zero-carbon-company\/","title":{"rendered":"BP is responsible for the oil it sells. No one else is. And on that basis it is clear it has no intention of being a net-zero carbon company"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been a mass of media reporting this morning of BP's supposed plan to become net carbon zero. The Guardian<\/a> is amongst many to fall or the line and publish this image:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I smelt a rat. I was right to do so.<\/p>\n

I went to the BP website and read the press release<\/a>. It says the plan is:<\/p>\n

\n

Five aims to get BP to net zero:<\/h3>\n

1. Net zero across BP\u2019s operations on an absolute basis by 2050 or sooner.<\/p>\n

2. Net zero on carbon in BP\u2019s oil and gas production on an absolute basis by 2050 or sooner.<\/p>\n

3. 50% cut in the carbon intensity of products BP sells by 2050 or sooner.<\/p>\n

4. Install methane measurement at all BP\u2019s major oil and gas processing\u00a0sites by 2023 and reduce methane intensity of operations by 50%.<\/p>\n

5. Increase the proportion of investment into non-oil and gas businesses over time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what is clear is that BP will still sell carbon-based products that will still pollute the planet in 2050. In that case it\u00a0will not be net-zero. It will in fact be the producer of a major continuing contributor to carbon pollution. It\u00a0may just use a bit less carbon to produce that carbon.<\/p>\n

What is clear is that BP, like so many companies, is relying on the new corporate cop-out, which is to claim they are not carbon neutral on the basis of their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. I have posted this definition, from the agency that defines emissions standards, before:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scope 1 and 2 together cover the emissions created by a business within its own processes. Scope 3 is the emissions they are responsible for in their supply and customer chains and which would not happen without them, but which Mark Carney's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures lets them ignore. BP is ignoring its Scope 3 emissions and as a result is making what I consider to be a false claim that it will be net carbon neutral. It won't be. It will be a major polluter.<\/p>\n

It's time for these denials of responsibility to end. BP is responsible for the oil it sells. No one else is. And on that basis it is clear it has no intention of being a net-zero carbon company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a mass of media reporting this morning of BP’s supposed plan to become net carbon zero. The Guardian is amongst many to
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,108,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-environment","category-green-new-deal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}