Britain oil major BP has shifted to lobbying for the EU to support natural gas when it was originally lobbying against the plan.
BP’s move exposes the varying views between investors and further shows a more complicated European dispute regarding gas’ role in the transition to a lower-carbon world.
Initially, BP was among the parties lobbying against the European Commission’s plan to exclude gas-fuelled power plants from a new list of investments that can be marketed as sustainable.
The company pushed instead for a rise in the emission limits that gas plants would be required to acquire to allow them the label of green without having to immediately install carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which is still seen to be too expensive for wide-scale use. BP also claimed that natural gas was enabling the transition from coal.
"Natural gas should have a dedicated threshold, above the current 100g CO2e/kWh, to reflect its role to facilitate an affordable and fair energy transition by enabling a shift away from coal in power generation and heating, providing dispatchable power to complement renewables and offering an alternative fuel in transport," it said.
BP is committed to bringing carbon emissions from its output to net-zero by 2050 and has pledged to align its lobbying activities to support net-zero carbon policies.
However, not all of BP’s investors are positive regarding the campaign, nor seeing if it is in line with the Paris Agreement.
Asset manager Sarasin and Partners commented that the company’s lobbying raised uncertainties regarding its commitments. "If their capital expenditure (CAPEX) was oriented towards full decarbonization by 2050, then you'd naturally expect to see lobbying align with this goal. The fact it seems to be pushing the other way suggests a problem," said the head of stewardship Natasha Landell-Mills.
Some other investors argued that there is no blueprint for what aligning with the Paris Agreement means in practice and did not view BP’s response to the European Commission’s plan as a problem.
