Chief executives of some of the world’s largest energy companies on Monday sought to defend themselves from criticism, saying it is not possible to keep everyone happy amid the planned energy transition.

Speaking at the ADIPEC oil and gas conference, which opened in Abu Dhabi on Monday, executives representing energy majors in the U.S., Europe and Asia sought to strike a positive tone on the current state of play for the fossil fuel industry.

It comes shortly after climate protesters took to the streets in hundreds of cities across the globe to demand that world leaders phase out the burning of fossil fuels, the chief driver of the climate crisis.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    351 year ago

    “So, the debate has always been posed here, I’m reminded of an old saying: ‘If you want to keep everyone happy, sell ice cream.’ We are not in the business of ice cream — and I’m reminded, there are people who are lactose intolerant,”

    … what? The longer you stretch an analogy, the higher the chance it’s going to sound stupid and weird.

    Jokes aside, it’s really not the responsibility of the oil barons to sunset their own injury. The responsibility is on the lawmakers who sold us all out to lobbyists for campaign money. We could have regulated this industry 30 years ago and had it all but obsoleted by now, but instead we did fuck all.

    • anderfrank
      link
      fedilink
      17
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Agreed, oil companies knew climate change was real forever ago and bought off politicians to keep them from doing anything about it.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOi05zDO4yw

      BTW Climate Town is an amazing YouTube channel for climate-related content, hilarious and educational.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        Stop voting for politicians that can be bought?

        I know they’re out there, we just need to give them support.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      41 year ago

      “After three or four years, I understood that maybe I was naïve, we will not please the activists. We will never make enough to please the ones which are against oil and gas, but my mission is not to please them,” Pouyanne said.

      Yikes there’s another problem. Maybe someone over there should make it the mission to listen to the scientists.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        41 year ago

        I’m not saying that Kaczynski was right, but maybe people like this need to fear bombs from the citizens of the planet they’re murdering.

        And they’re right they can’t cut emissions enough to please us until they hit zero. That’s the amount we need to get to

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -31 year ago

        Cynically, why?

        There’s a global demand for oil and gas.

        Why shouldn’t they want to meet that demand?

        Like, he and others like him across the world don’t want to save the planet, they want to make money.

        It is the role of government, and tangentially, tech innovators to decide that oil and gas shouldn’t be used. Then government and innovation build the tools, products and frameworks to make that a reality.

        I’m not defending oil and gas, I’m simply pointing out that it isn’t illegal to meet a global demand, someone other than him is supposed to replace that demand.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            -11 year ago

            Fine, hate everyone, but why should this guy listen to scientists? He’s making money hand over fist and seemingly has no reservations about it.

    • Kichae
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      The system required personally ambitious people to the right thing for everyone instead of the thing that would get them further ahead as an individual. In the face of the wealth and power of the oil industry, corruption was almost inevitable, sadly.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      2
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      At the same time as human beings they did have a responsibility to look at the devastation of their industry and not hide that or buy off regulators. Additionally you can argue they had a responsibility to begin the transition to less destructive energy in earnest. And they sure as shit had a responsibility to not buy out school curricula to indoctrinate children away from green energy like seriously what the fuck

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      21 year ago

      The responsibility is on the lawmakers who sold us all out to lobbyists for campaign money.

      Slight correction.

      The responsibility is on the consistency to vote for lawmakers that don’t succumb to bribery.

      Blaming politicians for the world’s problems instead of voters is like blaming companies for climate change but not customers.