Why BP is betting against oil
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2020
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is the fossil fuel industry being too complacent about the speed at which renewable energy will disrupt their business in the next three decades?
That's the contention of Spencer Dale, chief economist at BP. In an extended interview with Justin Rowlatt, he explains the thinking behind his company's plan to cut its own oil and gas production by 40% before the end of this decade.
And it's not just about heading off the threat of catastrophic climate change. As Spencer explains, even in their business-as-usual scenario they expected an unprecedentedly fast shift towards solar, wind and biomass energy, thanks to steep learning curves and stiffening competition.
Producer: Laurence Knight
(Picture: BP logo at night; Credit: NurPhoto/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Justin Rowlett. Welcome to Business Daily. Coming up, we speak to the brains behind a major energy company's corporate strategy. |
| 0:09.3 | Renewable energy will penetrate the energy system more quickly than any fuel ever seen in history. |
| 0:15.9 | Many of the oil resources and natural gas resources, which are below the ground now, will not be |
| 0:21.7 | extracted in the future. |
| 0:23.1 | But this is no up-and-coming solar or wind power company. |
| 0:26.7 | Nope. |
| 0:27.3 | This is one of the world's top oil and gas corporations predicting even encouraging the imminent demise |
| 0:35.7 | of its core business. |
| 0:37.0 | So is the writing on the wall for fossil fuels? |
| 0:41.1 | That is what we'll be asking in today's Business Daily. |
| 0:48.5 | Every journey has to begin with a destination. |
| 0:52.1 | And that destination for BP is a thriving, sustainable energy company. |
| 1:00.1 | Everywhere I have been inside BP as well as outside BP. I have come away with one inescapable |
| 1:08.9 | conclusion. And that is that we have got to change. |
| 1:14.1 | That is Bernard Looney, Chief Executive of BP, |
| 1:17.3 | making a big announcement back in February |
| 1:19.3 | about the oil and gas company's future. |
| 1:21.7 | So our ambition is to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner and to help the world get to net zero. |
| 1:32.3 | The world does have a carbon budget. It is finite and it is running out fast. |
| 1:39.3 | So after many decades, we will be retiring the upstream, downstream model that has served us so well. |
| 1:47.9 | And we will replace it with one that is more focused, more integrated, and faces the transition head on. |
| 1:55.6 | What that translates into in more practical terms is a pledge by BP to cut its production of fossil fuels by 40% by the end of this decade, |
... |
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