Ten years ago, on this day, November 4th, 2016,
Some of the world’s biggest oil companies including Shell and BP are preparing to announce a new green energy investment fund as they seek to improve their environmental reputation. Chief executives Ben van Beurden and Bob Dudley, along with the heads of Saudi Aramco, Repsol, Eni, Statoil and Total, are due to unveil details of the fund at an event in London on Friday [4th November] to coincide with the Paris climate agreement coming into force.
Gosden, E. (2016) Oil chiefs try to boost green credentials with new investment fund. The Telegraph, November 2.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 405ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was oil companies had known they faced reputational and potential legislative threats for decades. They had fought successfully against the latter via outfits like the Global Climate Coalition (1989-2002).
The specific context was Paris had happened the year before and everyone was still in the pretend phase.
What I think we can learn from this – people like to pretend. You get a better sort of canapes at ‘let’s all pretend capitalism is sustainable’ events.
What happened next capitalism continued to be unsustainable. Oh well.
xxx
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
Xx
References
xx
You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
November 4, 1959 – Edward Teller tells it like it is
November 4, 1988 – no quick fix on climate, warns Australian Environment Minister
November 4, 1999 – Australians have highest per capita emissions