Climate protests at the BP general meeting – speeches are sometimes interrupted

Protest against the BP annual general meeting in London

The managers of the oil company were interrupted in their speeches at the general meeting by heckling.

(Photo: dpa)

London Climate activists have repeatedly interrupted the speeches of top managers at the annual general meeting of energy giant BP in London. Security forces brought a total of seven women and men out of the hall on Thursday.

The first critic jumped up at the beginning of CEO Bernard Looney’s opening statement, shouting that he was “not telling the truth about the climate crisis,” the PA news agency reported. When the woman was taken out of the room, more activists took turns to stand up and criticize the company’s investments in oil and gas. People also protested against BP in front of the building.

Looney reiterated the company’s plans to invest an additional $8 billion in oil and gas through 2030, in addition to an investment in the energy transition. The CEO rejected allegations that BP is not investing enough in renewable energy. In 2019, the group still put three percent into these areas, in 2022 it was already 30 percent. It’s a “pretty significant change,” Looney said. Expenditure on fossil and renewable energies is “an and, not an or”.

Like all major oil companies, BP earned brilliantly last year thanks to the sharp rise in gas and oil prices. Operating profit more than doubled to almost $28 billion. Sales increased by a little more than half to 241 billion dollars. The British opposition party Labor is calling for the excess profit tax to be extended in view of the billions in profits made by energy companies and the rising cost of living for consumers.

More: BP boss doubles remuneration to more than eleven million euros

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