Oil giants refuse to commit to recommended CO2 cuts

The North Sea oil and gas giants are refusing to commit to the carbon emissions cuts demanded by the UK’s watchdog, triggering calls for the government to force them to act.

- ROB MERRICK

The bosses of BP, Shell and Harbour Energy are accused of “squirming” after ducking the call to reduce their greenhouse gas output by 68 per cent by 2030 in line with the government’s target for the UK economy. Instead, Harbour Energy said it “cannot commit to that”, Shell said it was “happy to aspire” to more than a 68 per cent cut, while BP said that it would “try to see how quickly we can get there”.

MPs have condemned the companies’ refusal to make what they say are “minimal” cuts at a time when they are making record profits, and said the moment to act was “now or never”. The companies’ responses are in defiance of recommendations made by the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), which has attacked the existing North Sea transition deal between the government and the industry as “unambitious”.

The current deal requires only a 50 per cent reduction by 2030, which the CCC called “well short of the 68 per cent we assessed as being feasible” – arguing that their stipulated figure is vital to meeting the UK’s overall commitment to net zero by 2050. Meanwhile, Shell has posted record three-month earnings of almost £10bn, and promised shareholders payouts of £6.5bn, as households were warned that their annual energy bills could hit £3,850 in January.

Chris Skidmore, head of the Net Zero Support Group of Conservative MPs, condemned the energy giants’ stance, telling