Thread by @Tzeporah

I am old enough to remember being naively excited when BP announced “Beyond Petroleum”. I am also from Canada & for years I thought we did need big oil to be inside to fight climate change 🧵axios.com/shell-ceo-clim…

So here is why I think @Shell’s comments today are disingenuous at best & likely very dangerous: in national, subnatiinal & international fora oil companies have successfully argued to weaken climate policy. I watched it happen in Canada & it is well documented elsewhere

See here: theguardian.com/business/2020/… and here: greenpeace.org/canada/en/pres… and here influencemap.org/report/How-Big…

For 4 yrs I met w/ oil company senior execs to try & find common ground & barriers to climate policy in Alberta which hadn’t moved forward in decades. I found some good people stuck in companies that have always rewarded technological fixes & equated progress w/ expansion/growth

Unlike a company like Orstad which was literally able to transform from an oil company to a renewable energy, most oil companies climate plans are based on three strategies: 1. Reduce emissions intensity not overall emissions

2. Convince governments they now believe & are working on climate change & governments need to support domestic oil companies even in climate era to maintain competitiveness and jobs with increasing tax breaks and subsidies to keep them alive while they work on tech breakthroughs

3. While pledging to work on climate simultaneously fund campaigns to expand markets & production (plastics, LNG shipping) & convince consumers not to switch gas to electric by fear mongering on price & burying health studies just like they did w climate huffpost.com/entry/your-ene…

So. No @Shell CEO the world does not need your help on climate change. The world needs governments to have the courage to not invite the polluters who stand to benefit from inaction to the table & to act quickly to pass laws that reduce our dependency on your products

There are 3 products responsible for more deaths & illness globally than any others. They are literally killing millions. There are also three products responsible for 80% of emissions trapped in our atmosphere. Those three products are oil, gas & coal. cnbc.com/2021/02/09/fos…

At this moment in history every ton of carbon matters. Every ton of carbon we don’t emit saves lives. It’s too late for incremental emissions reductions per barrel while allowing production to rise. We need urgent action to wind down emissions & production productiongap.org

Governments need to act now and thankfully we are starting to see signs of hope on overall fossil fuel production & emissions decline from Denmark, Spain, California & others. But Norway, UK, Canada, US, Argentina & others are still struggling under the thumb of big oil.

And history shows us that until they break free from under that thumb oil industry will weaken good policy (delays methane rules, weaker clean fuel standards, loopholes in carbon price etc) & take billions taxpayers dollars in subsidies or CCS that could go to climate solutions

The fact is we now have cheap renewable energy possible at scale & the potential of wide spread of the electrification of transport. It will take infrastructure investments & we are pouring billions into the fossil fuel industry still even though we already have more than enough

If we capped production today we would have roughly enough oil and gas in existing mines and wells to fuel societal needs during the transition to net zero by 2050. And the added bonus is we would stay under 2 degrees.

If we are really going to have a global just transition at from fossil fuels and a livable, safe planet we will need international cooperation to help countries especially in Global south wind down production. That’s why I support a @fossiltreaty fossilfueltreaty.org

Really glad to see support for @fossiltreaty growing including Dalai Lama & 100 other Nobel Laureates & many cities around the world. This moment I history requires big bold new moves not tinkering at the edges while people escape floods and fires fossilfueltreaty.org/nobel-letter

Worth checking out this analysis re @Shell climate leadership claims. Between 2010 and 2018, Shell was reported to have dedicated just 1% of its long-term investments to sources of low-carbon energy like wind and solar. clientearth.org/the-greenwashi…