Big Oil Reality Check

While last year the world committed to transition away from fossil fuels at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Big Oil Reality Check report reveals oil and gas companies are moving in the opposite direction, by doubling down on drilling that unleashes damage to our climate and fuels disasters by poisoning us, our air, land, and water.

If oil and gas companies were serious about the climate crisis, the first way they would show it would be ceasing to add new fuel to the fire — meaning no new exploration, expansion, or production of fossil fuels. Instead we find that:

• 6 of the 8 companies we analyzed (Chevron, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, and Eni) have explicit goals to increase oil & gas production.
• Even those companies (BP and Shell) that don’t have explicit plans to increase total production are putting forward new fossil fuel projects for approval, while framing themselves as contributing to the energy transition with a different strategy: selling polluting assets to other companies who will almost certainly make sure those fossil fuels are burned. Selling polluting assets can make it look like BP and Shell are heading in a better direction, but unless oil and gas fields are retired, the reality is this strategy protects their bottom lines while climate pollution continues.

The Big Oil Reality Check report reveals that none of the companies we analyzed have set comprehensive targets to ensure their total emissions decline rapidly and consistently, starting now. Instead of phasing out production as rapidly as possible:

• Every company intends to rely on carbon capture and storage (CCS), offsets, and/or other methods that delay and distract from ending fossil fuels, and prolong the health and community safety impacts of dirty energy.
• Many companies (Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies) can meet their existing climate pledges without even cutting total climate pollution below current levels within this decade.
• There is evidence that all companies are lobbying against climate action, greenwashing, and otherwise maneuvering to undermine the energy transition.

While many companies have co-opted the language of just transition from labor and climate justice movements in recent years, all the companies fail to meet basic criteria for just transition plans for workers and communities where they operate. Five companies score Grossly Insufficient and three score Insufficient.

All companies fail to meet basic criteria on upholding human rights, with five scoring Grossly Insufficient and three scoring Insufficient. These companies’ track record when it comes to protecting human rights and Indigenous Peoples’ rights is deeply concerning. Each is experiencing resistance from frontline communities to their projects based on human rights, health, and/or safety concerns. An Oil Change International investigation in March 2024 revealed that ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, BP, Shell, and Eni are all complicit in facilitating the supply of crude oil to Israel. This is in the context of the Israeli military’s ongoing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and mounting evidence of war crimes. Human rights are non-negotiable and these companies’ apparent disregard for it is yet another reason they should not be trusted to take climate action.