“We thus conclude that the transition to clean energy business models is not occurring, since the magnitude of investments and actions does not match discourse,” the researchers at Tohoku University and Kyoto University in Japan said.
Accusations of ‘greenwashing’ by big oil companies are well-founded, a new study finds:
The study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, found that Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell used terms like “climate,” “low-carbon” and “transition” more frequently in recent annual reports and devised strategies around decarbonization. But their actions on clean energy were mostly pledges and the companies remain financially reliant on fossil fuels.
The companies have taken particular heat from critics who say they misled the public about the dangers of climate change for years and are now doing too little to address the warming planet.