BP chairman warns 'world is on an unsustainable path'

BP’s chairman acknowledged in the Financial Times on Tuesday that the world’s energy consumption is on “an unsustainable path”.

Writing in the newspaper, Helge Lund said that oil majors’ days of chasing ever higher output are coming to an end.

He also said that BP is aware of the need to adapt its business for a lower-carbon future but did not provide details as to how it would go about doing so.

“With the oil price above $70 a barrel for Brent crude, surely BP wants to keep producing and selling as much as it can for as long as it can? On the contrary,” he said.

Activists and investors have called for the company to align with the Paris climate accord to reduce the impact of global warming and the looming climate crisis.

“The evolution into broader energy companies would require new carbon-neutral businesses to be created at an unprecedented rate and existing businesses to be transformed,” Lund said.

Most activists and climate control investors are demanding that energy companies take responsibility for most of the warming of the planet since they are the main parties releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when burning fossil fuels.

Climate activists such as Greenpeace recently blockaded BP’s London headquarters on Monday, and urged oil and gas companies to stop investing in new oil and gas production and pivot their businesses towards renewables instead.

The Greenpeace activists placed five large steel containers outside each of the entrances to the building in St James's Square.Filled with food, a chemical toilet and internet access, each box contained two protesters who would stay there for days.

The aim of the protest was to keep BP's headquarters closed "for at least the whole of this AGM week", Greenpeace said.

FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE

One of the measures under consideration to fight against climate change in the UK is restoring a quarter of the UK’s land to nature. This would make a significant contribution to the reduction of the nation’s carbon emissions to zero.

In the long-run, treating native woodlands, meadows and protecting peat bogs and marshes teeming with wildlife would help the country address the climate crisis.

Environment secretary, Michael Gove, is in favour of natural solutions for climate change related issues, and the government pledged it will ensure “public money is spent on public goods” after Brexit and the UK is no longer involved in the EU’s subsidy regime.

These ecosystems would absorb and store carbon dioxide equivalent to 10% of the UK’s annual emissions.

The fight against the climate crisis is becoming more urgent with rising levels of natural disasters, high pollution, global warming and sea levels rising, risking the flooding of many populated areas around the world.

A new study by climate scientists reported by the BBC revealed that there is a 5% risk that global sea levels could rise far more than predicted.

This could lead to the displacement of hundreds of millions of people, the authors say.

The authors said there is still time to avoid these type of scenarios by making major cuts in emissions over the coming decades.