TCI Commentary:
The pressure is mounting on the oil giant as Greenpeace and other activists make life difficult for BP’s new Chief Exec. Notice however that permission has been granted for drilling in the Vorlich oil fields to be challenged in the Courts … because of inadequate consultation! Expect more like this as Climate emergency activists start disputing those day-by-day decisions by Government which they think add to global warming. Expect also far more consultations – while powerful industries figure out how to respond. Watch this space.
Article:
Oil giant says new CEO, Bernard Looney, ‘understands the frustration and anger of protestors’ and will ‘set out his low carbon ambition for the company next week’
Greenpeace has stepped up its campaign against BP, again targetting its London head office just hours after securing approval for a High Court legal challenge against the most recent offshore drilling permit awarded to the oil giant by the UK government.
At 3am this morning, 100 Greenpeace activists delivered 500 solar panels with a total area of over 800 square metres to BP’s London headquarters in St James’ Square, blocking all six office doors around the building with activists locked to dirty oil barrels to prevent staff from entering.
Police prevented the activists from installing the panels on the pavements and roads surrounding the offices but as dawn broke there were 50 activists blocking the road outside the HQ.
The action was timed to coincide with the first day in the job for BP’s new CEO, Bernard Looney, who is expected to commission a report on BP’s future strategy in a warming world. BP has stepped up investment in clean technologies in recent years, including taking a major stake in leading solar developer Lightsource. Meanwhile, outgoing chief executive Bob Dudley told analysts this week that the company was “very intrigued with offshore wind”, noting that “we obviously think we have the offshore capability to get involved with that, you will probably see that”.
However, Greenpeace has argued that BP is still intending to spend $71bn developing new oil and gas fields this decade – representing £32 for every £1 they invest in renewables. The company also stands accused of being “a world leader in lobbying to block legislation which could speed up the decarbonisation of our economy”.
Richard George, climate campaigner for Greenpeace and one of the activists at BP’s headquarters today, said “this morning police managed to block our solar installation, but BP are trying to block the transition to clean energy on a global scale. Their lobbyists have the ear of governments around the world, they spend millions blocking action to fix the climate emergency and billions on drilling for more oil and gas to make it worse. Floods, droughts, forest fires and hurricanes all over the globe start right here with the plans made in BP’s headquarters”.
He added that Looney “needs to accept that if BP wants to keep trading in the 21st century, they need to switch to 100 per cent renewable energy”.
In a statement, BP said Looney “understands the frustration and anger of protestors in London”. The company added that “he shares their deep concern about climate change and will set out his low carbon ambition for the company next week. He hopes that what he has to say then will give people a sense that we get it and are very serious about working to address the problem”.
The latest protests came as Greenpeace was yesterday given the go-ahead to legally challenge BP’s latest drilling permit by the High Court.
The campaign group is arguing the government was wrong to award BP a permit to drill in the Vorlich oil fields north of Inverness because it failed to properly consult the public.
At a hearing in the High Court, Mrs Justice Lang granted Greenpeace permission to proceed with a judicial review against the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BP is named as an interested party in the case.
In a protest last June, activists attempted to block BP from accessing the 30 million barrels of oil contained at the oil field by boarding oil rig Paul B Loyd Jnr as it was being towed out to sea in the Cromarty Firth.
BP and its rig operator Transocean sought to stop the action with court interdicts, but Greenpeace continued its protest for 12 days. In a separate legal case, BP’s rig operator Transocean is seeking fines and jail sentences against Greenpeace and its executive director John Sauven as punishment for breaching the interdict.
Sauven said: “BP has been given free rein by the government to drill for more oil and gas in the North Sea, without proper public consultation and without any consideration of the devastating impact that the use of this oil will have on our climate. We took action last year and boarded BP’s rig to stop this from happening. Now we will fight to prove that BP should never have been there in the first place.”
Greenpeace’s judicial review hearing follows a successful case brought by Neil Garrick-Maidment of the Seahorse Trust last year, which challenged the legality of the permit granted to energy firm Carillion, on the grounds that there had not been a proper public consultation.
After the Seahorse case, Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom agreed to carry out a detailed review of the Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipelines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1999 and amend them following a public consultation. But as yet there has been no public announcement on the progress of that consultation.
BEIS had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication, while BP declined to comment on the case.
Article originally appeared on Business Green
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