The impact of the coronavirus epidemic should convince oil companies and governments to “grab the current opportunity” to fight global warming, Greenpeace UK’s boss told Recharge’s sister publication, Upstream.

“The ecological emergency that we are facing has not gone away, but I don’t think anyone was expecting what has happened,” executive director John Sauven told Upstream at Greenpeace offices in North London, a day before the UK government advised social distancing.

“We were in a ‘business as usual’ situation, with companies planning to spend millions of dollars to hunt for more oil and gas, and being backed by banks and others in the financial sector," he said. "What we are going to see, I think, is a very different world going forward — at least the possibility of one.”

Sauven — who faces up two years in jail for a recent Greenpeace protest (see below) — urged oil & gas companies to begin lobbying governments for plans that support portfolio diversification and capital reallocation.

“Tell governments you want to invest in new energy systems," he said. "Ask them to start putting in place policies and regulations that will enable new energy systems to come to fruition.”

Sauven could end up in prison if Greenpeace is found in contempt of court for allegedly breaking an injunction during a protest in the North Sea last June, when protesters prevented contractor Transocean from drilling at BP’s Vorlich oil field.

Edinburgh’s Court of Session last week postponed the verdict hearing — which was originally set for this Monday — as the coronavirus (Covid-19) spread to thousands of people in the UK. The court has not yet specified a new date for the hearing.

“Our action was peaceful and proportionate to the climate crisis that we are facing. We did not feel it was right that we could be silenced because these companies run to the court to get an injunction,” Sauven told Upstream last week.

The environmentalist explained that worldwide emissions are expected to drop this year due to the coronavirus pandemic as a result of global recession, lockdowns and a grounded airline industry.

But countries should use their economic stimulus cash to boost climate-friendly policies and activities, he said.

"Governments have a huge responsibility now, and whether it's state aid, subsidies, regulations, research and development — governments can ultimately decide the trajectory we will travel on.”

Previous arguments that investors could get higher returns from oil & gas projects than from renewable energy and clean technologies now fall short, Sauven said, adding that companies such as BP — which recently committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 — could shape the path of the energy industry.

This was backed up by a recent LinkedIn post by the new BP chief executive Bernard Looney, who said: “Some people have also questioned how the current circumstances affect our purpose and net zero ambition.

"I think what is going on now only reaffirms the need to reinvent our company. And we will.”

Some observers fear the oil-price collapse could undermine the energy transition as the oil multinationals have less money to spend on green investments. But Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, recently said governments' new coronavirus-related economic stimulus packages could actually lend support.

“Large-scale investment to boost the development, deployment and integration of clean energy technologies — such as solar, wind, hydrogen, batteries and carbon capture — should be a central part of governments’ plans because it will bring the twin benefits of stimulating economies and accelerating clean energy transitions,” Birol said.

He said the precipitous oil-price drop was also “a great opportunity” for countries to lower or remove fossil fuel-consumption subsidies.

Sauven said the world needs to see climate action on the same scale as pandemic-containment efforts. “The climate emergency will not go without us putting in the same kind of effort that we are putting in to fight Covid-19,” he told Upstream.

Transition

Coronavirus pandemic is an 'opportunity for Big Oil to boost climate action'