It’s time for a new campaign. If you feel moved by the stories of the children around the oil fields near Basra who are getting ill because of air pollution from flaring [1], or if you are shocked by the complete waste of fossil fuels in flaring and venting when there are so many people in fuel poverty [2], or if you see so much of the greenhouse gas emissions each year coming from petrochemical companies for no reason other than cost when they are enjoying record profits [3, 4], then you are welcome to campaign on this issue. Addressing flaring and venting from oil and gas extraction is worth at least 5.4% of global emissions [5] (and possibly closer to 10% if looking at recent satellite analysis from climate TRACE [6]). And there are only a very few companies responsible. Think what a massive step forward this would be for this one solvable issue to be sorted?
Here’s the plan:
Write to your MP or representative (https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP)
- ask them to hold petrochemical companies to account – we need regulation to force them to do the basics: to eliminate routine flaring and venting both here and throughout their global operations – we’ve given them time to sort it – we’ve given them the highest oil prices in years and they can and should invest some of their profits to doing what they know needs to be done – right now
- We need independent monitoring and measurements of flaring emissions and venting emissions as soon as possible
- Finally we need contractual commitments from oil and gas firms to invest in the relatively simple equipment to collect the methane and make use of it rather than wasting such a colossal amount of fossil fuel. Some of the most deprived communities in the world live close to oil fields where flaring is taking place today – some without access to energy. Stopping flaring and venting could give the local communities energy rather than just pollution and health risks. It’s just the right thing to do.
Write directly to the oil companies responsible
Many people assume they don’t listen, but let’s tell them anyway what we think. They all have customer services departments so let’s send them a message. Write to the customer services of the major petrochemical companies
BP: https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/contact-us/contact-form.html
Shell: https://www.shell.com/about-us/contact-us.html
ExxonMobil: https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/about-us/contact-us
Chevron: https://www.chevron.com/about/contact
TotalEnergies: https://services.totalenergies.uk/contact-us
Write to the investors and investor groups who invest in petrochemical companies.
Write to your pension fund. Write to your bank. Tell them this is not a divestment request, tell them this is a responsible ownership request. Remind them of their duty of care. This is not even that radical: we’re just reminding them of the World Bank aim on stopping routine flaring and venting [2].
Vent your views to stop them venting their gas!
References:
[1] Under Poisoned Skies, BBC Film, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0d34rtt
[2] World Bank on Flaring, https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/gasflaringreduction/gas-flaring-explained
[3] FT special report, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiiLzsleuwU
[4] Engineering with Rosie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuQLJIqFjkk
[5] World Resources Institute, https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors
[6] Climate TRACE project, https://climatetrace.org/news/more-than-70000-of-the-highest-emitting-greenhouse-gas
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