Climate campaigners prepare for protests at oil giant’s AGM
● Activists from cyclone-hit Mozambique join protestors for meeting in Aberdeen
Campaigners from cyclone - hit Mozambique will join protesters at BP’ SA G Min Aberdeen today, accusing the company of helping to drive“deadly and destructive” climate change.
The protesters say the activities of the oil company are worsening climate change in an area hit by two of Africa’ s most deadly storms.
More than 1,000 people are known to have died in Cyclone Idai which hit Mozambique earlier this year.
While scientists have questioned whether climate change is increasing the frequency of such storms, cyclones appear to be increasing in intensity.
Yesterday Greenpeace campaigners blocked the entrance to BP’S office in central London in protest at what they call the company’s lack of action on climate change.
Friends of the Ear th (FOE) said BP is funding the expansion of gas extraction in Africa where scientists believe climate change is helping increase the strength of storms. Ilham Rawoot, Ja! For Change (Friends of the Earth Mozambique) claimed BP would be the sole buyer of gas from the Coral LNG Project in Mozambique, which is led by Italian energy firm Eni.
She said: “The development will affect the Unesco-protected Quirimbas archipelago, home to coral reefs and a wide diversity of marine and terrestrial species including the endangered sei whale, Indian yellow-nosed albatross and loggerhead turtle. The environmental impact assessment shows that just this one project will increase the greenhouse gas emissions of Mozambique by 10 per cent by 2022.”
FOE said that after the pro - test at BP’S AGM, activists will go inside to “ask BP to close these destructive projects and phase out their fossil fuel operations”.
Caroline R ance, Friends of the Earth Scotland climate campaigner, said: “Communities affected by BP oil and gas extraction in Mozambique, Alaska and Brazil are here to demand that they stop these damaging projects.
“Climate science is clear that we urgently need to phase out fossil fuels, yet BP are doing everything they can to squeeze every last drop.”
Yesterday, Greenpeace volunteers arrived at BP’S offices in St James’ Square, central London, at around 3am, where they blocked access points with reinforced containers.
Each container has enough space for two activists and the organisation plans to blockade BP for the next week.
A spokeswoman for BP said: “We welcome discussion, debate, even peaceful protest on the imp or tant matter of how we must all work together to address the climate challenge, but impeding safe entry and exit from a building in this way is dangerous and clearly a matter for the police to resolve as swiftly as possible.”
Today BP is holding its annual general meeting in Aberdeen. Presumably it thinks it might be safer from protestors in the home of the UK oil and gas industry, but there will still be tricky questions from shareholders about climate change and the impacts of the firms activities around the world, including from our sister organisation FOE Mozambique.
Last week we published a report on the climate change imperative to phase out oil and gas extraction through a just transition for workers and communities.
The “Sea Change” report, created with two other organisations, highlights the contradiction of saying that we are serious about climate change and yet aiming to get every last drop of fossil fuels out of the North Sea. It also looks at the huge potential for alternative jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency, and the measures the UK and Scottish governments need to take to make this transition real and fair, and make sure those jobs are created in Scotland.
In the UK, 91 per cent of our emissions come from burning oil and gas. The already committed extraction of nearly six billion barrels is enough to blow the UK’S climate budget under the 2015 Paris Agreement, yet industry expects to take out at least 20 billion barrels and both governments support pumping out every last drop. The report’s top recommendations are common sense: stop looking for new reserves and cancel licences for fields where extraction has not begun.
The next recommendation is for the governments to work with industry, trade unions, workers and communities to plan a phase-out of extraction and a transformation of the offshore industry. But when should we turn off the valves and plug up the wells?
Three years ago, a study was published in the scientific journal Nature by academics from University College London. There had already been discussion of the need to leave about 80 per cent of known fossil fuels in the ground to avoid breaking disastrous climate change temperature limits but this new study looked in detail at the how much of the coal, gas and oil we know about has to stay where it is. They said 80 per cent of coal, 50 per cent of gas and 35 per cent of oil must not be extracted.
Applying their calculations to our North Sea gives us a first estimate of how long the industry can be allowed to operate, how long we have to build up alternative industries and jobs and make the transition from high-carbon jobs to low-carbon jobs. Those percentages are of economically recoverable assets, the oil and gas that we have a very good idea we can definitely extract, the so-called 2P reserves.
The industry and both governments talk about there being 20 billion barrels of oil and gas left in the North Sea fields, but the 2P reserves are much smaller than that, at about six billion barrels of oil and gas. There is a bit more oil than gas, but not far off 50:50. If you apply the UCL study, we should be able to take only 3.4 billion out if we are to play our fair part in the global picture. That is less than is already expected in currently active fields and, at current productions rates, gives between ten and 15 years’ more extraction.
If we are serious about the Climate Emergency, then these are the timescales we should be discussing. And that means we need to start negotiating a Just Transition right now. • Dr Richard Dixon is director of Friends of the Earth Scotland