Big oil ‘fully owned the villain role’ in 2023, the hottest year ever recorded. Fossil fuel firms ‘took the mask off’ as they reneged on climate pledges and doubled down on expansion of planet-heating energy. Guardian Dharna Noor  Wed 3 Jan 2024  Throughout 2023, the hottest year in recorded history, fossil fuel giants doubled down on their planet-heating business models. The moves flew in the face of oil and gas companies’ promises to tamp down their emissions and prioritize cleaner forms of energy. It is evidence they are “unfit to have a role in the energy transition”, said Collin Rees, the US program manager at Oil Change International. Oil majors have over the past several years announced seemingly ambitious climate plans. BP promised to cut its fossil fuel investments by 35 to 40%. Shell pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Exxon, meanwhile, said it would slash its emissions and gas burning and touted its investments in algae as a potential carbon-free fuel. Chevron announced an “aspiration” to reach net-zero upstream emissions by 2050. And dozens of oil companies signed onto an initiative to cut their methane emissions. But in 2023, firms took actions that stood in sharp contrast to those plans. “Companies have gotten more brazen about their plans to keep polluting,” said Rees. “They took the mask off.”

In October, ExxonMobil agreed to buy the shale group Pioneer Natural Resources, and Chevron announced plans to acquire the Texas oil company Hess – two of the country’s largest oil and gas deals in decades. Both mergers are being investigated by federal regulators for potentially impeding competition. And both amounted to Exxon and Chevron placing vast bets on a continued future for fossil fuel production in the US, despite scientific consensus that coal, oil and gas must be phased out to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. Fossil fuel companies reneged on their previous climate promises earlier in the year, too. BP scaled back its emissions-slashing goal from 35% by the decade’s end to a 20 to 30% cut, while ExxonMobil quietly walked back funding in algae-based biofuels and Shell announced that it would not increase its investments in renewable energy in 2023. A major reason for the change in tack was a shifting market, experts say. As fossil fuels were becoming less profitable years ago, companies announced plans to diversify their business models......read on    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/03/2023-hottest-year-on-record-fossil-fuel-climate-crisis