Nature: Despite Greenwashing, FF Companies Own 1.42% of Renewable Capacity, Producing 0.1% Of Their Energy Output

[hatrack]

EDIT

One long-running argument for giving oil and gas companies a seat at the table at COP has been that, as the providers of the lion’s share of the world’s energy, they must be partners in global decarbonization. “Coalitions have to include the incumbent energy companies, and specifically the oil and gas companies,” Ernest Moniz, who was energy secretary under former president Barack Obama, told CNBC at COP28 in 2023.

But a new study in the academic journal Nature Sustainability appears to bolster Galey’s side of the argument, by demonstrating exactly how little fossil fuel companies are investing in renewable energy. The study’s authors analyzed data from Global Energy Monitor, an open source database that tracks oil, gas, coal, and renewable energy use worldwide, to figure out just how involved major fossil fuel companies are in the deployment of renewables.

The researchers fully expected measures of fossil fuel producers’ investment in renewable energy to be low — but not this low: Of the 250 largest oil and gas companies, they found, only 20 percent were operating any renewable energy projects at all. Overall, fossil fuel producers own only 1.42 percent of global renewable energy projects, and those projects are responsible for a measly 0.1 percent of their total energy production.

Marcel Llavero Pasquina, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona who authored the study along with Antonio Bontempi, admits that he was surprised by how little renewable energy activity is supported by oil and gas companies, despite going into the research with low expectations. “They’ve been hammering this message that they are part of the transition, that they are an ally in the fight against the climate crisis for so long,” he told Grist. “I was expecting [oil and gas companies to own] around 5 percent.”

EDIT

https://grist.org/accountability/fossil-fuel-companies-renewable-energy-report/

[NNadir]

1. It really doesn't matter. The greenwashing of...

...so called "renewable energy" itself has effectively kept the fossil fuel industry fat and healthy, albeit in an unhealthy way for all living things. The trillions dollar "renewable energy" business has had no effect whatsoever on the growth in the use of fossil fuels.

The existence of so called "renewable energy" is wholly and totally dependent on access to fossil fuels, and the claim that it is "green" is in itself greenwashing.

We live in times where lying is equally as important as statements of truth. Truth itself has become almost meaningless and without effect, a matter of consequence in present and future times for all living things.