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Earth

European 'Green' Investments Hold Billions in Fossil Fuel Majors (theguardian.com) 42

An anonymous reader shares a report: European "green" funds holding more than $33 billion of investments in major oil and gas companies have been revealed by an investigation, despite fossil fuels being the root cause of the climate crisis. Some of these investment funds used branding such as Sustainable Global Stars and Europe Climate Pathway.

Over $18 billion was invested in the five biggest polluters: TotalEnergies, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP. These topped a 2023 Carbon Majors ranking for oil and gas production among shareholder-owned firms. Other investments by funds following EU sustainable finance disclosure regulations (SFDR) included those in US fracking company Devon Energy and Canadian tar sands company Suncor, the investigation by Voxeurop and the Guardian found.

Investors claim that holding a stake in a company allows them to influence the firm's pursuit of climate goals. However, no major oil and gas producer has plans consistent with international climate targets and many companies have weakened their plans in the last year, according to a report from Carbon Tracker in April. The investment firms with the biggest stakes in fossil companies in their green funds were JP Morgan, BlackRock and DWS in Germany.

European 'Green' Investments Hold Billions in Fossil Fuel Majors

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  • by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Monday May 19, 2025 @03:42PM (#65388369)

    Is that a degree in energy management specialising in coal, oil and NatGas?

    Or what happens when you promote a Fossil Fuel Captain?

    • "Or what happens when you promote a Fossil Fuel Captain?"

      A Fossill Fuel Admiral?

      • No, you would get that by promoting a Fossil Fuel Commodore.

        Come to think of it, all (Holden) Commodores ran on Fossil fuels, though some of them may have been converted from petrol to CNG or LPG (which are still fossil fuels even though they contain less carbon.

  • Isn't it funny (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NaCh0 ( 6124 ) on Monday May 19, 2025 @04:51PM (#65388567) Homepage

    Isn't it interesting that when investors have their own money on the line, the environmental virtue signaling goes out the window.

    Suddenly the Green Energy initiatives of Exxon and BP should be given more credit.

    • The ESG/green investing products have the same problem as any targeted investment in a particular area. There is not enough places to invest the money beyond a given total dollar amount.

      The remaining money goes to companies 'allied' to the ESG/green movement even if the allied companies have have run non-green business for decades.

  • A firm doesn't need to have plans consistent with climate goals in order for an investment in that firm to produce results consistent with climate goals. The reason oil and gas companies got such a large share of green investment is because they ... invested it in green energy.

    Yeah in the past year they've all backed off, but that didn't mean that BP wasn't one of the biggest wind producers in America, or one of the largest solar companies in Europe, or that Shell doesn't have a *massive* EV charging networ

    • by kick6 ( 1081615 )

      A firm doesn't need to have plans consistent with climate goals in order for an investment in that firm to produce results consistent with climate goals. The reason oil and gas companies got such a large share of green investment is because they ... invested it in green energy.

      Yeah in the past year they've all backed off, but that didn't mean that BP wasn't one of the biggest wind producers in America, or one of the largest solar companies in Europe, or that Shell doesn't have a *massive* EV charging network, or that Total isn't at the forefront of floating windfarms or that Chevron isn't building massive amounts of green hydrogen generation.

      The investment here is in engineer, and fossil fuel companies are the undisputed leaders in execution of major energy engineering projects.

      It's all about power and control. If you don't pledge fealty to the climate targets, you can't be controlled by them, and thus we must put you on blast as being on the naughty list.

  • The oil and gas industry apparently earned 4 trillion in profits in recent years.

    https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]

    It may well be the money these green funds have invested is a mistake, but in no way would that investment ever be missed. It is a tiny drop in the barrel, as it were.
    • by ledow ( 319597 )

      And, thus, the argument that they are somehow controlling the industry from the inside by holding those shares is absolute nonsense and they should just sell them off.

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