A new study that mapped the portfolios of the world’s 250 biggest oil and gas companies found their deployment of renewable energy is paltry: they’re responsible for just 1.42% of the global renewable energy capacity in operation. Despite announcing ambitious plans to embrace renewables, a mere 0.1% of the primary energy they produce comes from renewables, the study found. “Fossil fuel companies are maintaining their political license and legitimacy to continue influencing climate and energy policies around the world, by claiming they are part of the solution to the climate crisis,” lead author Marcel Llavero Pasquina, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, told Mongabay by video call. The numbers clearly show they are not, Pasquina added. Among the 250 companies the researchers looked at were French giant TotalEnergies, Italy’s Eni, U.K.-based BP and Shell, and U.S. giants Exxon and Chevron. They tracked the major solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal projects in which these companies have a stake, either directly or through subsidiaries or acquisitions. The analysis showed that nearly 70% of the small portion of global renewable energy capacity owned by fossil fuel companies is located in Europe, the U.S., India and Brazil. Among the companies, TotalEnergies has the most installed renewable capacity, around 14.6 gigawatts. “Effectively, American oil and gas companies have no renewable assets,” Pasquina said. Just 1.5% of the global renewable energy capacity is located in Africa, he added. Of this nearly 70 GW of energy capacity, fossil fuel companies have a stake in only 2.8%.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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