In the Netherlands, twelve of Europe’s leading fossil fuel companies are deceiving the public about their willingness to curb their climate-damaging impact by transitioning to renewable energy sources, according to analysis commissioned by Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
The report, ‘The Dirty Dozen: The Climate Greenwashing of 12 European Oil Companies’, analysed the 2022 annual reports of six global fossil fuel majors and six European oil and gas companies, revealing that a minuscule 0.3% of their combined 2022 energy production came from renewable power.
The report also reveals that Big Oil is undermining climate action via a deliberate cocktail of greenwashing jargon, promoting dangerous distractions like carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon offsetting, misleading diagrams of their focus and activities, and by publishing only partial data to hide the reality and undermine climate action. There is no sign of any fundamental reorientation of the industry’s core business that would allow it to play any role in the energy transition.
According to the report, BP, Equinor, Wintershall and TotalEnergies actually reduced their investments in low carbon or renewable products in 2022, compared to 2021.
