« Google hegemony | Main | The man who lost the Great Barrier Reef »
August 26, 2006
Beyond greenwash?
Image source: www.artnotoil.org.uk
The oil companies are invariably portrayed by the environmental movement as pariahs, and the root of all evil. Exxon, for example, does not make the slightest effort to do anything vaguely environmentally responsible, but others, like BP, do at least go through the motions. BP, now 'Beyond Petroleum' rather than 'British Petroleum' still spends billions drilling for oil, but there are signs that it is now seeking to do more than just invest in sleek ads that project a clean, green, image.
EDIE reports this week that BP has launched a carbon offset scheme for motorists. The targetneutral initiative 'will let motorists work out their emissions taking into account factors like the vehicle they drive, average mileage and fuel used and then pay to support carbon reduction schemes around the world in an attempt to cancel out their contribution to climate change.' According to BP, for the driver of an average car doing the average 10,000 miles per year, this is likely to cost somewhere in the region of £20. The EDIE article goes on to say that:
Participating projects will initially include a wind farm in Karnataka, India, and biogas schemes in several other Indian states as well as plans to extract methane from Mexican pig farms and burn it to produce electricity.
Drivers who sign up to the targetneutral scheme will be able to receive regular updates on new projects, which are expected to include a wide variety of technologies and will follow strict procedures to ensure their integrity, modelled on those set up by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for emissions reduction projects developed under the Kyoto Protocol.
Targetneutral will be run as a corporate entity separate from BP and will not make a profit for the company.
The scheme has been developed in consultation with leading NGOs and will be advised and monitored by an independent advisory and assurance panel chaired by Jonathon Porritt, founding director of Forum for the Future."
Apparently, the Green Party isn't impressed and has written the initiative off as 'greenwash', and not without some justification given that BP is listed as the second largest corporate emitter of carbon dioxide in the Carbon 100 Index, a study published by Trucost in June 2005 looking at the emissions of FTSE 100 listed companies.
A 'feel-good' scheme it may be, but if it raises community ecological consciousness, it's a step in the right direction at least.
Posted by jeremy at August 26, 2006 11:09 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.jeremybwilliams.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/370
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)