Marcel Llavero-Pasquina

The oil and gas industry has been mounting a Trojan horse to infiltrate institutions around the world in plain sight. In the lead-up to the Paris Agreement, when the fossil fuel industry was feeling most threatened, they organised the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative to spearhead the narrative that the fossil fuel industry was a responsible and powerful actor to be reckoned with in the decarbonisation of society. 

The narrative ballooned ever since, and even Christiana Figueres, the UN’s Climate Chief at the time, was excited “that the oil and gas industry can actually be part of the solution”. At its most sensitive political moment in history, the industry’s narrative succeeded in securing its select access to the institutions that govern our economies, our lives, and the climate we depend on.

The narrative continues to this day, with oil and gas companies deceptively claiming to have become “integrated energy companies” rapidly deploying renewable energy to “support the world’s progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement”. The unchallenged acceptance of these claims is a condition of possibility for the industry to maintain its political license and its catastrophic influence over climate policy.

But the “part of the solution” narrative is nothing more than a vacuous public relations exercise. In a new study, we have found that the largest 250 oil and gas companies contribute to only 1.42% of the global renewable energy capacity. And even as oil and gas companies deceptively describe themselves as integrated energy companies, we have found that of all the energy these 250 companies extract, only 0.10% comes from renewable sources.

Crucially, the large-scale deployment of renewable energy alone (not to mention the potential social and ecological unrest that such deployment would entail) would not reduce CO2 emissions unless oil and gas companies replaced and abandoned fossil fuel extraction.

The only truly meaningful contribution the fossil fuel industry could make towards solving the climate crisis would be to leave fossil fuels underground. Nothing could be further from the truth, as oil and gas companies have continued to pour billions into exploration and development of new oil and gas fields since the Paris Agreement.

The fossil fuel industry is the most unlikely contributor to solving the climate crisis. Its business model and the profits of their shareholders is dependent on maximising oil and gas extraction. And beyond financial interests, the fossil fuel industry needs oil and gas to fulfill its systemic economic function to extract and concentrate energy, and thus power, in the hands of a world’s minority.

The gross inequalities our world witnesses are deeply entangled with oil and gas. The disproportionate levels of energy consumption enjoyed by a world minority in the Global North, are only possible through the historical and continued exploitation of the Global South’s resources. Unlike solar and wind, oil and gas can transfer and concentrate massive amounts of energy resources towards the world’s rich. 

Oil and gas companies cannot physically transition to decarbonised energies without losing their foundational function of funneling resources to the Global North. The fossil fuel industry’s nature and function are incompatible with the energy transition, and it will logically do everything possible to obstruct and delay climate action.

And yet, the “part of the solution” narrative is key for the fossil fuel industry to infiltrate our civic institutions, from Universities and cultural centers, to the UN Climate Negotiations. By claiming to be significant contributors to the fight against the climate crisis, oil and gas companies have built a facade of responsible and concerned actors with much capital and knowledge to offer in the decarbonisation of the economy.

This narrative is the natural reaction of an industry that is conscious of its historical responsibility and accumulated liabilities, and is reckoning with increasing public backlash and antipathy. It is only by aligning themselves with the signs of times, that the oil and gas industry can maintain its political license to continue influencing the policies that shape our economies, our daily lives, and our planet’s climate.

And while it is not surprising that oil and gas companies try to deceive their way into political relevance, it is frustrating to see their deceptions and greenwashing win over reputable institutions. On the basis that the oil and gas industry is a force to be reckoned with in the fight against the climate crisis, universities continue collaborating with them, museums continue to take their sponsorships, and fossil fuel lobbyists flood UN Climate Conferences.
It is time that society acknowledges the obvious and now proven reality that the oil and gas industry is not going to decarbonise out of climate responsibility. In 2025, with only two years left to reach the carbon budget for 1.5ºC, evidence and reason call for a full social and institutional boycott of the oil and gas industry. For the sake of a stable climate and a decent life for all, we must demand that public institutions cut all links with the fossil fuel industry, isolating climate and energy policy from the worst climate offenders ever to exist.