Appendix: Climate Scoring Profiles
The following is also available on InfluenceMap’s online climate lobbying database.
The Oil Majors
Climate Policy Score: E+
Improvements in BP’s top line statements on climate change since 2015 appear increasingly disconnected
from the companies’ lobbying on a range of climate and energy policy. Responding to the IPCC’s special
report on 1.5C warming in October 2018, BP CEO Bob Dudley stated publicly - “Clearly it’s a call to action.”
In the same month, however, responding to an an EU consultation, BP appears not to have supported
increasing the region’s GHG emission reduction contribution by 2050. In 2016, BP’s Chairman Carl-Henric
Svanberg and CEO Bob Dudley told shareholders that the company supported "strengthening" climate
policy frameworks. However, this does not appear consistent with the company’s support for the US
Administration’s rollback of regulations impacting their operations since this time. In 2017, former BP
America CEO John Minge sent then US EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt a document with a handwritten note
thanking him for his “vision” on regulatory reform. BP also lobbied the US Administration on reducing
“regulatory burdens” impacting its operations. In 2018 BP CEO Bob Dudley thanked the Trump
administration for the “avalanche of regulations” that have been reduced or removed. BP also actively
lobbied the US Administration between 2016-2018 for the repeal or rollback of various methane emission
requirements. Bob Dudley has separately explained that the company supports a "carbon price” as it is “by
far a better way to go than regulation.” The company’s website states that the company supports either
emissions trading or carbon taxes. Despite this, BP spent $13m in 2018 to oppose carbon pricing regulation
in the US state of Washington which would have placed a $15 fee on every ton of CO2 produced. BP has
also engaged through multiple channels, including direct consultations with consultations and along with EU
trade body FuelsEurope, to weaken the impact of the EU ETS by pushing for greater immunity for industry
installations through the allocation of free emission permits. BP’s high-level framing of a global energy
transition, promoted through various messaging channels, suggests the need for a “gradual” approach, with
increased short-term investment in “advantaged” oil and gas. The company has advocated with both EU
and US policymakers for policy to support investment in CCS technologies in 2018. BP’s support for a
transition from coal to gas in the power sector is premised on the notion that gas represents a permanent
solution rather than a transition fuel. BP has also lobbied for measures to facilitate increased oil and gas
development in the US in 2017-2018..
22 InfluenceMap
March 2019
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