Dr. Li Mei, a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Gregory Trencher, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, and Asuka Jusen, a professor at the Tohoku University Northeast Asian Research Center, are major oil majors such as Exxon Mobile. An analysis of the clean energy transitions of the four companies from annual reports and other sources revealed that they were inconsistent with investment behavior.
According to Tohoku University, the research team published annual reports collected from 4 to 2009 on strategies and actions indicating the transition of four major oil companies (BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell) to clean energy. Comprehensive analysis based on the data.
The results show that BP and Shell have significantly increased the keywords related to "climate," "low carbon," and "transition" in their annual reports.However, an analysis of actual business strategies revealed that most clean energy-related activities were not concrete actions, but merely pledges.
Of the four companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil were also significantly different from their European competitors in the transition to clean energy, and it was also revealed that there was a noticeable move against decarbonization. BP and Shell have expanded land area for new exploration, promising to reduce investment in fossil fuel mining operations.
The research team believes that oil majors are still continuing their business model of relying on fossil fuels and are not moving towards clean energy.
Paper information:[PLOS ONE] The clean energy claims of BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell: A mismatch between discourse, actions and investments
