A joint investigation from Channel 4 Information and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has discovered that the UK financial institution NatWest is constant to lend to the oil and fuel firm BP, regardless of having led the way in which on web zero banking with a public pledge to solely work with firms which have plans that align with the Paris Local weather Settlement.
Critics say BP doesn’t.
UK banks are persevering with to assist oil and fuel firms borrow cash, doubtlessly jeopardising their very own local weather commitments, Channel 4 Information and The Bureau for Investigative Journalism can reveal.
A kind of revealed to be serving to present money for oil and fuel big bp is NatWest, which was the lead sponsor of COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. It’s a serious investor in renewable vitality and says that fossil fuels are a small a part of its tasks.
Since 2021 it has promised to not lend to grease and fuel firms until they’ve a “credible transition plan” according to the 2015 Paris Settlement, which pledged to maintain world temperature rises beneath 1.5 levels celsius.
The Worldwide Vitality Company has warned that the targets of the Paris settlement are incompatible with improvement of recent oil and fuel tasks.
However a joint investigation with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has discovered that NatWest, alongside different UK banks, continues to lend to bp. It helped organize a £400 million bond in 2023, and even at present [13 November] was concerned in serving to safe financing for bp.
Kelly Shields, marketing campaign supervisor at Share Motion, instructed us: “NatWest stated of their coverage that they received’t finance oil and fuel majors aside from the caveat if they’ve a reputable transition plan. If [bp] are increasing oil and fuel and so they haven’t any plans to cease doing that, we don’t assume that that plan is credible.”
The oil and fuel firm has scaled again its local weather commitments, final 12 months downgrading a pledge to cut back emissions by 40% in 2030, to only 20% by the identical 12 months. Analysts anticipate that to lower once more.
bp has additionally introduced it’s increasing manufacturing of oil and fuel in plenty of websites over the world, together with within the Gulf of Mexico, Iraq and even simply off the shore of Baku, Azerbaijan, the place COP29 is presently underway.
One website, the Shafag-Asiman fuel subject, lower than 100 miles from Baku, is estimated by some to comprise 500 billion cubic metres of fuel, which if burnt may lead to a billion tonnes of carbon coming into the environment. bp says no determination has been made on the event of the block and it has not made its personal estimate of its contents.
Mike Coffin, head of Oil and Gasoline and Mining on the local weather analysts Carbon Tracker, says: “The IEA may be very clear, there is no such thing as a room inside a 1.5 diploma carbon price range for any new oil and fuel tasks.”
Requested if bp had a reputable transition plan, he instructed Channel 4 Information: “Proper now, we’d say no. Finally for an oil and fuel firm, in the event that they’re persevering with to develop new tasks that aren’t appropriate with Paris targets, it’s very arduous to see how that firm might be thought of Paris-aligned.”
A bp spokesman instructed us: “bp’s ambition is to be a web zero firm by 2050 or sooner and to assist the world get to web zero. We consider our technique is in step with the targets of the Paris settlement.”
NatWest, which continues to be part-owned by the taxpayer, is only one of many banks concerned in financing bp. It instructed us it couldn’t touch upon particular person prospects, however a spokesperson stated:
“We performed a overview into {our relationships} with plenty of Oil and Gasoline majors to make sure that they had a Credible Transition Plan aligned with the 2015 Paris Settlement.
“Any new financing to Oil & Gasoline prospects is topic to them assembly our danger standards for the sector and we refute any suggestion that we now have not constantly met these publicly printed commitments.
“NatWest continues to assist firms with their local weather transition ambitions, with a goal to supply £100bn local weather and sustainable funding and financing between 1 July 2021 and the top of 2025.”
