BP’s bold climate proposal may not add up to net zero

Bloomberg

After months of planning, BP’s new CEO Bernard Looney made his big green pitch: Europe’s second-largest oil company will cut its emissions to net zero by 2050, he said earlier this month. Many thought that made BP the world’s first supermajor to take responsibility for all its emissions.
It did not do that. Every company has three types of emissions. BP’s so-called Scope 1 emissions are those directly produced by the company, such as natural gas used to heat BP buildings. “Scope 2” emissions are created by another entity, for example a coal power plant powering BP refineries.
Finally, “Scope 3” emissions are all those that can be directly tied to the company, including emissions customers generate when using BP fuels.
BP is only going to cut some, not all, of its Scope 3 emissions. Sensing some confusion at that concept at his recent presentation, Looney took to a drawing board to explain.
“I’ve probably drawn this 50 times,” he said.
BP’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions are about 55 million metric tons each year, he explained, drawing a small horizontal bar.
Then he drew two much bigger bars—and called both Scope 3. One was about 360 million metric tons and another “around” 1 billion metric tons.
You won’t find the larger number in BP’s annual reports, which for 2018 put the company’s Scope 3 emissions at 437 million metric tons.
But it is a number that the CEO is confident enough to mention at his big climate announcement.

Climate Concerns
The 360 million metric tons was the amount of Scope 3 emissions BP would reduce to net zero; those were emissions from the oil and gas the company extracts itself, Looney said.
Looney’s reasoning for choosing to cut only 360 million out of 1 billion metric tons is that, if the companies BP buys its crude from also take responsibility to cut their respective Scope 3 emissions for the oil they extract, then all involved could double-counting. In effect, we’d all be heading towards a net-zero world.