What a week it turned out to be for ‘Big Oil’
As The Guardian summed up on Saturday: “The world’s patience with the fossil fuel industry is wearing thin. This was the stark message delivered to major international oil companies this week in an unprecedented day of reckoning for their role in the climate crisis.
“In a stunning series of defeats for the oil industry, over the course of less than 24 hours, courtrooms and boardrooms turned on the executives at Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron. Shell was ordered by a court in The Hague to go far further to reduce its climate emissions, while shareholder rebellions in the US imposed emissions targets at Chevron and a boardroom overhaul at Exxon.” It’s well worth reading their summing up.
Considering the Dutch judgment, Energyvoice.com had reported that supermajors could look to divest their carbon heavy assets in order to meet climate change targets, according to a Verisk Maplecroft analyst.
“In a landmark decision on Wednesday, oil and gas giant Shell was ordered by a Dutch court to axe its emissions by 45% by the end of the decade”. It wrote that: “The ruling has been hailed as a big win for environmental campaigners, in a week where Chevron and ExxonMobil also faced climate inspired backlash.
“It means Shell will have to quickly ramp up its decarbonisation activities, although the firm does have a carte blanche on how it chooses to reduce emissions. And Will Nichols, head of environment and climate change research at Verisk Maplecroft, says that could incentivise firms to farm out the dirtier parts of their portfolio.”
Pressure on major oil companies and investors to accelerate energy transition
On Friday Reuters reported that the world’s biggest asset manager and top BP investor BlackRock said it had backed a shareholder resolution calling for faster climate action which the energy company’s board opposed. BlackRock’s vote at BP’s annual general meeting earlier this month points to growing pressure on both major oil companies and investors to accelerate efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions. BlackRock holds a 6.8% stake in BP, according to Refinitiv data.
IEA report: viable pathway to net zero by 2050
All of this comes hot on the heels of the recent report from the International Energy Agency declaring in a recent report – described by them as a ‘landmark special report’ – that the world has a viable pathway to building a global energy sector with net-zero emissions in 2050, but it is narrow and requires an unprecedented transformation of how energy is produced, transported and used globally.
Business as normal on the renewables front!
A new UK Offshore Energy Workforce Transferability Review by Robert Gordon University (RGU) highlights that the offshore energy workforce mix will change significantly in the next 10 years, with roles in decarbonised energies projected to increase from 20% to 65% of all jobs in the offshore energy sector (oil & gas, offshore wind, carbon capture utilisation and storage and hydrogen). The Review also indicates that over 90% of the UK’s oil and gas workforce have medium to high skills transferability and are well positioned to work in adjacent energy sectors.
Plans for new GE Renewable Energy facility
GE Renewable Energy’s plans for a UK factory to manufacture blades for offshore wind turbines have taken a major step forward after it submitted plans for the facility. The 78,000sq metre facility, in the South Bank zone of the Teesworks site, will sit alongside a new 1km heavy lift quay, creating the UK’s premier location for offshore wind.
SIMEC Atlantis Energy tidal power facility passes inspection
Congratulations to SIMEC Atlantis Energy who announced last week that their tidal power generation facility in Naru Island, Japan, has passed the Japanese government’s pre-use inspection tests. The site, which features the AR500 tidal turbine, is now recognised as an official power generation facility. The tests were undertaken by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which is a key stakeholder in consenting renewable energy projects in Japan.
EMEC visited by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
EMEC played host last week to very special visitors The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited them on Orkney in pursuit of solutions for tackling climate change and supporting the UK’s green economic recovery. Their Royal Highnesses met with EMEC’s managing director, Neil Kermode, and external relationship manager, Eileen Linklater, to hear about the test centre’s role in developing an ocean energy industry and green hydrogen economy. Discussions centred around the potential for ocean energy as a new sustainable energy resource stimulating job creation and supply chain development in coastal communities.
SSE to invest £2bn in low carbon projects
SSE plans to invest around £2bn largely in low carbon power projects this year and is weighing up further investments as the UK prepares to host COP26. The company has created more than 1,000 jobs during the pandemic and expects to build on this number in 2021-22. Additionally, they are to partner with not-for-profit organisation the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK) Scotland which encourages diversity and inclusion. SSE is the latest company to join AFBE-UK, a platform for sharing ideas and supporting diversity and inclusion strategies.
Four day work week could reduce emissions by 20%+
If you’ve enjoyed yesterday’s Spring Bank Holiday here’s news that might interest you! A study, by the environmental organisation Platform London and the 4 Day Week Campaign, found that moving to a four-day week by 2025 would shrink the UK’s emissions by 127m tonnes, a reduction of more than 20% and equivalent to taking the country’s entire private car fleet off the road.