Leadership Next Bernard Looney on BP's Big Announcement
In 2020, BP CEO Bernard Looney announced the international oil company planned to significantly increase investments in solar and wind energy while cutting oil and gas production - and thus carbon emissions - up to 40 percent by 2030. Last week, amid soaring oil prices, BP rolled back that commitment. BP's new plan is to reduce its oil output 25 percent by 2030 and its Scope 3 carbon emissions by 20 to 30 percent.
At the same time, the 114 year-old company points out it now spends 30 percent of it capital on its alternative energy business, up from just three percent in 2019. And, it still intends to cut its own direct emissions 50% by 2030.
In this episode of Leadership Next, Looney joins hosts Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt to dissect this complicated message. He details what motivated the change and lays out BP's strategy to become an integrated energy company (to include explaining why oil will remain a part of that strategy). Also in the conversation: BP's approach to addressing the "energy trilemma," maintaining public trust in the midst of a strategy change, and how growing up on a farm in Ireland influenced Looney's leadership style.
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