There is news of green investments being announced by the oil companies, and this will cover wind farms, carbon capture, and electric battery storage facilities. This comes at the same time that Saudi Arabia is planning to sell some of its oil company and diversify. Shell and Exxon Mobile have AGMS due and calls will be made to help with climate change. The question is – “is this genuine concern or “greenwash”?” There are fears it is just down to low oil prices, and it will soon change back.
French company Total is investing 1 billion Euro in Saft with chairperson Patrick Pouyanne claiming that they were looking to grow renewable energy. He believes that electricity is the power of the future and funding had been found to convert a refinery to a biofuel plant, and $500m was there for renewables.
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Shell are also getting involved and have an annual budget of $200m and are bidding to build two wind farms in Holland and they could provide electricity for 825,000 houses. Statoil is planning a large floating wind farm close to Scotland, and an arm of the company has $200m to be used up in the next seven years. Executive VP Irene Rummelhoff blames global warming for the need to chance our ways when it comes to fuel.
Total are being taken seriously and have been praised for their long- term involvement in solar energy. The CE of SolarPower Europe, James Watson believes that they are instrumental in getting the French government to be the same.
