It is July and things are relatively quiet in NordSIP’s hometown of Stockholm. However, before long the ESG train will begin rolling again once summer is over, with Azerbaijan’s COP29 rapidly approaching in early November. The Laundromat archive is peppered with increasingly exasperated diatribes about this seemingly endless rearranging-deckchairs-on-the-Titanic series of climate conferences. Perhaps host nation Azerbaijan, 90% of whose national export revenues come from oil and gas, will surprise us this time by making bold and decisive moves to steer the world away from climate catastrophe. Meanwhile, the Laundromat is nervously looking over its shoulder in case it ends up meeting the same fate as many local dissenting voices in Azerbaijan.
But what of the post-COP28 to-do list? Earlier this year the International Energy Agency (IEA) brought the great and the good together in Paris to set out their summer homework assignments. Having taken almost 30 years to muster up the courage to utter the words “fossil fuels,” the COP delegates had been tasked with coming up with updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) based on the new data from COP28’s global stocktake. As John Kerry emphasised at the time, it is really up to the wealthier nations to lead the way, given their greater financial capacity to invest in renewables and make the transition away from fossil fuels.
So let us check in with them and see how they are getting on. On 24 July 2024 independent think-tank the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) released their analysis of new oil and gas industry data gathered by Norwegian firm Rystad Energy. This will surely be good. We must all be on the same page by now and heading towards low-carbon salvation. Let us scan the IISD’s headlines:
“Rich countries (the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom) have issued two thirds of the global number of oil and gas licenses since 2020.”
“If all licensed fields are fully exploited, the world will extract more than twice as much oil and gas in 2040 as is compatible with a 1.5°C global warming limit. The ‘production gap’ is widening at its highest rate since 2015.”
Oh.
But hold on, President Biden brought the US back into the Paris Agreement fold and ploughed billions into renewable energy infrastructure via his Inflation Reduction Act. Unfortunately, it turns out Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has also approved more public land oil and gas drilling permits than Donald Trump had at the same point in his distinctly climate-unfriendly presidency. While Donald has been shouting “drill, baby, drill,” it appears that Joe has been quietly getting on with it. All right, so what of the Europeans, whose greener reputation precedes them?
“Companies spent $26.2 billion looking for more oil and gas in the past 12 months. Equinor, Shell, and BP were the biggest investors.”
Ah.
The UK’s brand-new government has already taken concrete steps to redirect the national economy back towards renewables. For instance, it immediately cancelled the blanket ban on new onshore wind energy projects and set plans in motion to create a new publicly owned company called Great British Energy, which will be focused on greater UK energy self-sufficiency founded on renewables. The jury is very much still out, so despite previously having regularly put the Laundromat boot into the UK we will let them off for now.
No way Norway!
But what is Norway doing in that naughty list? The official Visit Norway website proclaims the country as the electric vehicle (EV) capital of the world: “When it comes to electric vehicles, Norway is top of the class. They’re everywhere! In 2023, more EVs were sold than any other type of car. Why is that?”
The answer may be that this narrative successfully distracts visitors and observers from the activities of Equinor, one of the aforementioned trio responsible for the largest oil and gas exploration expenditure of the last 12 months. The state-owned firm is behind the controversial Rosebank oilfield project in the UK’s North Sea waters. Norway’s environmental image was further tainted when its parliament voted to open up its seabed to highly controversial commercial deep-sea mining.
The United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom are very rich countries. They should not be approving and financing vast new fossil fuel projects that contradict all supranational climate agreements and the recommendations of the IEA and any credible scientists. A large chunk of their money should be put towards helping less-wealthy nations finance renewable energy grids and thereby leap-frog fossil fuels as they strive to develop their economies. The Laundromat has spent much column space calling out the Gulf states for their expansionist oil and gas projects, but the behaviour of this spectacularly hypocritical quintet of nations is just as reprehensible. We will keep a close eye on the UK government’s renewed climate efforts, and keep our fingers crossed for a greener US administration being voted in this year in the run-up to a genuinely effective COP29.
