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This is a big moment for Big Oil. Climate reality has finally caught up with BP’s corporate dreamland that it could carry on drilling forever.

Even before the current COVID-19 crisis, coal was in trouble due to its high carbon content, coupled with high costs. But COVID-19 is accelerating that decline. And once coal is gone, it is not coming back.

The Norwegian Government has just given lucrative tax breaks to the oil industry to carry on drilling, despite the urgent need to tackle our climate emergency.

We have leading experts warning that trillions could be at stake as the fossil fuel industry suffers a terminal and structural decline, but all governments do is pour billions more away on fossil fuels in COVID-19 recovery plans. It is nonsensical. There should be no Big Oil & Gas bailout.

Export Development Canada (EDC), Canada’s government-backed export credit agency, has long been one of the worst in the world when it comes to backing the fossil fuel industry with public money. Their new climate policy opens the door for meaningful change, but the initial targets are far too weak to get the job done.

More and more companies do not want to go back. They want a just transition moving forward. We have to make sure now that politicians meet rising corporate and political pressure. There can be no Big polluter bailout. Any post-COVID-19 economic recovery plan has to make central a managed transition away from fossil fuels to a cleaner, more sustainable, more just, future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up the global energy economy. Wealthy countries have scrambled to support their own fossil fuel industries. Meanwhile, poor countries are reeling. So what would a sustainable and just energy transition look like?

A poem by Nnimmo Bassey.

We stand with the people rising up in Minneapolis, across the United States, and around the world in demanding justice and fundamental change in the way our society, our governments, and our institutions operate. Black Lives Matter.