BP goes back to its roots as a big, dirty oil major

Apparently security was tight for BP's 99th Annual General Meeting. Groups of protesters dressed as pirates harangued shareholders as they made their way into the sprawling Excel Conference Centre in London's Docklands. Inside BP faced a bewildering array of questions on everything from the group's decision to invest in Canada's tar sands to the plight of grizzly bears in the Northern US and the war in Iraq.

Photo: BPs Trans Alaska pipeline

The Times reported that: "But for all BP's high-flown talk of an ongoing commitment to moving Beyond Petroleum and an undeniable, though comparatively small-scale, commitment to renewable energy, it was very hard to avoid the sense that this is a company that is returning to its roots as a big, dirty oil major....This is depressing. Against a background of increasingly dire warnings about the rapid pace of climate change and the urgent need to reduce emissions, one of the world's biggest oil companies seems to be headed in completely the wrong direction. Instead of showing leadership, its solution appears to be an investment of $3bn in the Canadian oil sands. Forget serious investments in innovative, clean technology, BP seems to be talking about selling its renewables business off. In spite of everything, its approach seems to be less progressive than it was five years ago. Next year's AGM will be the company's 100th anniversary. By then, Peter Sutherland will have been replaced. Whoever his successor is, I hope he drives a fresh approach at BP. As Sutherland mentioned today, around $100bn is being invested globally every year into renewable energy but the UN believes four times that is required to have a significant impact on emissions. Companies like BP need to play a profoundly greater role in this process."

I couldn't resist leaving a comment on the website: "BP's slogan "Beyond Petroleum" (or was that "Beyond Preposterous"?) was never more than greenwash - indeed for the climate, natural gas is at best an incremental improvement over oil, and at worst a distraction from the real challenge of moving our societies away from fossil fuels - of course BP must play their part - we all have to cut emissions by 90% - this "Back to Petroleum" is economically, environmentally and morally wrong."