African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
ClimateFrom the wit-hole countries...
Home›African Arguments›Climate›BP praised for ambition to destroy Africa but potentially a bit slower

BP praised for ambition to destroy Africa but potentially a bit slower

By James Wan
February 21, 2020
3090
0
BP zero emissions
BP zero emissions

African countries like Mozambique – which was hit by Cyclone Idai in 2019, killing over a thousand people and displacing over 100,000 – will be the most affected by the climate crisis. Credit: Denis Onyodi: IFRC/DRK/Climate Centre.

From the Wit-hole countries is African Arguments’ satirical section. It’s the news, but absurd. It’s sometimes better than the real thing, sometimes not quite real, and sometimes much more real.

In a heavily-trailed speech last week, BP’s new CEO Bernard Looney announced a new low-cost idea to improve the oil and gas major’s public image. Speaking to journalists and investors, he explained that the leading polluter would pretend to be concerned about the climate crisis by now saying it would like to become a net zero carbon emitter “by 2050 or sooner”.

The multi-millionaire boss of the world’s 7th biggest multinational apologised that no one had had time to put together a plan for the ambition just yet. Looney’s understanding, he said, was that someone would get round to it by September (or sooner), but emphasised that it would be “an ambition” and therefore void of any measurable targets, costs or actions anyway. “Today is about a vision, a direction of travel,” said Looney, who also expressed an ambition to become a more well-rounded person by 2030.

BP has a well-established record of rebranding in response to bad press. In 2000, it spent $200 million changing its name from British Petroleum to BP (“Beyond Petroleum”), since when it has emitted approximately 1 billion tons in greenhouse gases almost exclusively from oil and gas. In a more fitting part of the same exercise, it also changed its logo from its traditional emblem to a green-flecked apocalyptic fireball.

Last week’s initiative seems to have been similarly effective. Soon after BP’s announcement, influential organisations led by older and richer people who won’t be affected by climate breakdown welcomed the PR move.

Green investor and shareholder pressure groups that worked with BP to come up with the rebrand also applauded the rebrand they’d worked with BP to come up with. These organisations appear to have played a small but crucial role in crafting the oil major’s announcement. According to leaked documents seen exclusively by From The Wit-Hole Countries, BP’s original draft spoke of the company’s ambition to become net zero “by 2050 or whatever”. Following consultation, this was changed to “2050 or sooner”.

By contrast, virtually all other environmental groups and experts have condemned BP’s announcement, calling it “spin”, “cynical” and “simply not credible”. Global Witness, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Greenpeace, WWF, 350.org and many others have all pointed to the complete lack of detail in the vague “ambition” and cited the scientists’ warnings that no credible plan to tackle the climate crisis can possibly involve new fossil fuels exploration. Like with BP’s sponsorship of arts and culture, many of these groups see BP’s announcement as a transparent attempt at greenwashing.

According to at least one BP executive, however, these criticisms – along with those of scientists, African civil society and young people globally – are missing the point. Speaking on the condition of anonymity from an animal sanctuary in West Africa, the senior manager told From The Wit-Hole Countries:

“Look, BP is already synonymous with causing environmental devastation like in South Africa, cosying up to authoritarian regimes like in Angola and Algeria, and grand corruption like in Senegal. And everyone knows we’re destroying the planet, starting with Africa and its people,” he said as we walked around the insectarium.

“No one with any power cares, of course, but at least this PR exercise gives them a new way to pretend. A way to say things like: ‘Hey sure BP’s a massive polluter, but they are one of the less bad ones,” he added before picking up an Atewa dotted border butterfly, one of West Africa’s less cute endangered species, and ripping off its head in one of the less brutal ways to kill a living creature.

…and just to reiterate again, this is satire. Read more of From The Wit-Hole Countries here.

Previous Article

Africa Insiders: Why Sudan is turning to ...

Next Article

The opposition playbook for discrediting elections and ...

mm

James Wan

James Wan is the editor of African Arguments. He is an elected member of the African Studies Association-UK council and a fellow of the Wits University China-Africa Reporting Project. He is the former Acting Editor of African Business Magazine and Senior Editor at Think Africa Press. He has written for Aljazeera, New Humanitarian, BBC, The Guardian (UK) and other outlets.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • img-4
    #EndSARSEditor's PicksNigeriaPolitics

    What is the legacy of #EndSARS?

  • Charity Nyoni, one of the growing number of women in Zimbabwe’s construction industry, tests paint on a board in a Victoria Falls showroom. Credit: Fortune Moyo/Global Press Journal.
    EconomyGPJZimbabwe

    Building houses while knocking down gender barriers in Zimbabwe

  • img-6
    Politics

    Has the Ugandan “˜Revolution’ ended?

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • Djibouti fiddles amid the scramble for the Red Sea
  • Why France EACOP case might embolden, not discourage, activists
  • The International Community Must Reconsider its Engagement with Somaliland
  • Unpacking the geopolitics of Uganda’s anti-gay bill
  • Why’s the AfDB siding with the Agrochemical Industrial Complex?

Editor’s Picks

AlgeriaEditor's PicksPolitics

“Nothing will fall from the sky”: Algeria’s Revolution marches on – Photo Essay

In February 2019, Algerians took to the streets in the country’s largest demonstrations since independence. This began a movement, known as Hirak or the Revolution of Smiles, which continued ever ...
  • Eritreans Biniam Girmay wins the Gent-Wevelgem men's elite race in March 2022, becoming the race's first African winner.

    Why are there no Black riders in the Tour de France?

    By Georgia Cole & Temesgen Futsumbrhan Gebrehiwet
    July 13, 2022
  • South Sudan aid. Arsenie Coseac

    South Sudan: How warring parties play international donors

    By Daniel Akech Thiong
    March 20, 2019
  • img-10

    South Africa: Meet the queer vloggers taking back the narrative

    By Grant Andrews
    March 4, 2021
  • African ecofeminism. Credit: Caroline Ntaopane/Womin.

    Why the world needs an African ecofeminist future

    By Fatimah Kelleher
    March 12, 2019

Brought to you by

img-12

Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.