“BP rolls back on Net Zero Goals – bets $US10 billion on fossil fuels". The headline was qualified - “A smart move or a climate setback?”
BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss has claimed the Ukraine war, the pandemic and unstable energy markets have slowed the shift to renewables.
But in truth, BP’s strategic shift is as much about boosting profits and shareholder returns as the slowdown in the shift to renewables.
Call it a fortuitous alignment for the oil major as it falls into line with the fossil fuel peddling from The White House.
I got a sniff of this changing mindset at the 2023 Apec CEO Summit in San Francisco. Exxon chairman and CEO Darren Woods’ address was pure anodyne: climate change is real; human activity plays a role; it is one of the major problems facing the world today – but it’s not the only one.
Woods segued. Many ideas to accelerate the energy transition were not based in economic, technological, or political reality. “We cannot replace overnight an energy system that took 150 years to build. The size and complexity are simply too vast … No country has ever joined the developed world without access to oil and gas. The countries of the global south have every right to lift their people out of energy poverty and into the global middle class.”
There is some truth to this. But coming from New Zealand where our political leaders had revelled in imposing a ban on oil and gas exploration, the contrast was stark. This strategic shift simply underlines Shane Jones’ moves to leverage New Zealand’s resource base are not based on an alternate reality. The shift is real.
BlackRock’s boss ‘finks’ out on DEI commitments
BlackRock boss Larry Fink has made a commercial fetish of positioning his company at the forefront of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
But when the world’s largest asset manager released its annual report this week, all the usual virtuous references to DEI policies were gone.
In 2023, BlackRock said a diverse workforce with an inclusive and connected culture was “a commercial imperative and indispensable to its success”.
The latest report simply says “delivering for the firm’s clients requires attracting the best people from across the world. BlackRock is committed to creating an environment that supports top talent and fosters diverse perspectives to avoid group think”.
It looks very much like the powerful Fink has simply fallen into line with the sentiments in Trump’s executive order that instructed federal agencies to investigate corporate DEI programmes on the grounds of potential civil rights violations.
It’s too early to say what the implications will be for sustainable finance deals but when BlackRock pulls away from DEI and the oil majors step up fossil fuel production, there is a significant shift under way that will have implications here.
Transgender firings
The United States military has begun firing transgender members, who will be separated from service unless they receive exemptions.
“Military service by service members and applicants for military service who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria is incompatible with military service,” a Defence Department memo says.
“Service by these individuals is not in the best interests of the military services and is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security.”
The memo follows Trump’s signing of an executive order that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way, describing them as “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member”.
Waivers would be granted only “provided there is a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities”.
NZ’s defence chiefs will have to watch out that the US does not seek to impose restrictions on those serving within the forces with which it operates.
Dying in the darkness?
Washington Post owner and tech baron Jeff Bezos has issued an edict to his newspaper ruling that the opinions section would now be focused on “personal liberties and free markets” and won’t publish anything that opposes those ideas.
“We are going to be writing every day in support and defence of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” the billionaire Amazon founder wrote in an email to Post staffers he published on X.
“We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Bezos’ stance is not too far distant from that imposed (through osmosis) by Rupert Murdoch in his flagship mastheads the Wall St Journal and The Australian.
But it is a shock to the sensibilities of staffers and readers of the liberal leaning Post.
Post publisher and chief executive William Lewis said that change was not about “siding with any political party”.
“This is about being crystal clear about what we stand for.”
It’s also crystal clear that personal liberties and free markets is what the Trump administration stands for.
JD Vance’s sermon
The US Vice-President stunned the recent Munich Security Conference when he said the threat he worries most about is not Russia, nor China – but the threat from within.
He exploded the consensus between Europe and the US by arguing Europe has retreated from its most fundamental values by repressing conservative speech and political actors and was reaping the fruits of uncontrolled immigration.
It was the equivalent of farting in church.
What it does signal is the US leadership will respect no boundaries when it comes to selling its worldview.
Will New Zealand subvert its own values to fall into line – or is it time to craft a new story we can all be proud of?
