Saudi Aramco and big oil is on ‘wrong side of history’, says John Kerry

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John Kerry, the former US secretary of state and climate envoy, said companies were being intimated into dropping green targets under Donald Trump’s presidency and accused oil groups of “being on the wrong side of history”, even as the industry doubles down.

Following the CERAWeek industry conference where Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said there was “more chance of Elvis speaking” than the shift to renewable energy working — instead highlighting reducing emissions from “conventional energy” — Kerry said this view “could not be more wrong”.

“If the head of a major fossil fuel company wants to pretend it isn’t going to happen, have at it. But they’re on the wrong side of history. And history is not just waiting to prove it. [It’s] proving it right now. This transition is happening.”

Kerry, who has joined Galvanize Climate Solutions, the investment group founded by fellow Democratic presidential contender Tom Steyer, said solar and wind energy was being deployed rapidly even in the US where renewables accounted for almost 90 per cent of new electricity.

The International Energy Agency said last year that spending on clean energy was twice that of fossil fuels, at €2tn globally. However, this was mainly meeting rising energy demand rather than replacing fossil fuels.

The 81-year-old argued some companies had been “intimidated” into dropping or downplaying green efforts, a reference to the pushback from Republicans states over environmental, social and governance issues.

A host of companies have ditched or delayed net zero emissions targets or dropped out of industry coalitions in the face of a political backlash, often citing the slow pace of change and a lack of government support.

But Kerry said that behind the scenes many were still pushing ahead with climate risk planning. “Everybody I’m talking to assures me they are staying on target, but they just don’t want to put a target on themselves in doing so, because of this weaponisation [of climate change],” he said.

Kerry said that companies and states had already changed their operations and productions for a greener future, citing carmakers as an example.

“The CEO of Ford and General Motors and Mercedes and Volkswagen, all of whom have changed their production facilities to produce electric vehicles. None of them is suddenly going to say, oh, let’s go back and make internal combustion engine cars,” he added.

Many companies would push ahead regardless of Trump, he believed. “They’re doing this because there’s money to be made, because there’s investing to be done, because this is the transformation that’s going to affect the world.”

The former US Secretary of State also said Europe’s focus on upping its defence spending was “overdue and appropriate”, but added that this did not have to be at the expense of climate action.

He was speaking in London at the sidelines of an event organised by the Sustainable Markets Initiative, a group established by King Charles to push the private sector to accelerate action on climate change.

Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, chief executive of SMI, added that many chief executives were reluctant to put “their head above the parapet” on climate issues because “they’ll be shot.”

“When you have this kind of headwind and people are worried about their shareholders and often even the CEOs are worried about their own position. They care enough about the [climate] issue but if they don’t respond to their shareholders, they’re in a Catch 22,” she said.

Kerry also played down concerns that other countries would follow the US in pulling out of Paris agreement, the global accord to tackle climate change, after Trump withdrew the world’s biggest historical polluter for the second time.

“No country with wise and thoughtful leadership is going to burn its back on embracing the new energy future for the simple reason it’s better, it’s healthier, it’s cleaner, it’s safer.”