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1 Complaint Against BP in Respect of Violations of the OECD Guidelines

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1 Complaint Against BP in Respect of Violations of the OECD Guidelines Complaint against BP in respect of violations of the OECD Guidelines Complainant: ClientEarth Fieldworks 274 Richmond Road Martello St Entrance London E8 3QW Company: BP p.l.c. 1 St James’s Square London SW1Y4PD NCP: UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises Department for International Trade 3 Whitehall Place London SW1A 2AW Contact Persons: Sophie Marjanac, Climate Accountability Lead, ClientEarth ([email protected]) Sam Hunter Jones, Lawyer, ClientEarth ([email protected]) Tim Cooke-Hurle, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers ([email protected]) ClientEarth is an environmental law charity that has staff in London, Brussels, Warsaw, Madrid, Beijing, Berlin and Luxembourg, and works to enforce laws for the protection of the environment around the world. 1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ............................................................................... 6 1 Executive summary ........................................................................................................ 6 2 The Parties .................................................................................................................... 10 2.1 The Complainant .............................................................................................. 10 2.2 The Company ................................................................................................... 11 2.3 The UK NCP .................................................................................................... 12 3 Requirements of the OECD Guidelines ....................................................................... 12 3.1 The OECD Guidelines ..................................................................................... 12 3.2 Understanding deceptive or misleading practices ............................................ 15 3.3 Application of the OECD Guidelines and other relevant standards ................. 21 4 BP’s advertising campaign ........................................................................................... 28 5 Breaches of the OECD Guidelines: overview .............................................................. 34 BREACHES OF THE OECD GUIDELINES: RENEWABLES ............................................ 36 6 Misleading impression of the role of renewables in BP’s business ............................. 36 6.1 Background and summary ................................................................................ 36 6.2 Understanding BP’s fossil fuel and renewables operations ............................. 36 6.3 The advertisements ........................................................................................... 37 6.4 Analysis of these advertisements touching on the role of renewables at BP ... 46 6.5 Application of the Guidelines .......................................................................... 54 7 Misleading claim about BP’s wind business ................................................................ 56 8 Misleading statements regarding BP’s facilities at the Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir Solar Farm .................................................................................................................... 58 BREACHES OF THE OECD GUIDELINES: GAS ............................................................... 61 9 Omission of lifecycle emissions information for gas ................................................... 61 9.1 Introduction and summary ............................................................................... 61 9.2 The advertisements ........................................................................................... 61 9.3 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 62 9.4 Application of the OECD Guidelines............................................................... 65 10 Misleading claims that BP’s gas is “cleaner burning” ................................................. 67 10.1 Introduction and summary ............................................................................... 67 10.2 The advertisements ........................................................................................... 68 10.3 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 68 10.4 Application of the OECD Guidelines............................................................... 72 11 Misleading claims that BP’s gas only performs a back-up function in electricity generation ..................................................................................................................... 73 11.1 Introduction and summary ............................................................................... 73 11.2 The advertisements ........................................................................................... 74 2 11.3 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 76 11.4 Application of the OECD Guidelines............................................................... 79 12 Misleading statements that gas is a “perfect”, “ideal” or “smart” partner to renewables .................................................................................................................... 81 12.1 Introduction and summary ............................................................................... 81 12.2 The advertisements ........................................................................................... 81 12.3 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 81 12.4 Application of the OECD Guidelines............................................................... 84 BREACHES OF THE OECD GUIDELINES: ENERGY DEMAND AND CLIMATE CHANGE ................................................................................................................................. 86 13 Suggestion that an increase in global energy demand is inevitable and necessary for human progress and development and the related omission of information about the predicted negative impacts of climate change on human progress and development .. 86 13.1 Introduction and summary ............................................................................... 86 13.2 The advertisements ........................................................................................... 86 13.3 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 89 13.4 Application of the OECD Guidelines............................................................. 104 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 106 14 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 106 14.1 Request to BP ................................................................................................. 106 14.2 Request to the NCP ........................................................................................ 107 3 Figures Page Figure 1 - Poster at Westminster tube station that prompted complaint (from the Financial Times)……………………………………………………………………………………….. 25 Figure 2 - BP “Keep advancing” Adverts on Cromwell Road, London.........………………… 42 Figure 3 - Percentage coverage of topics in the Financial Times advertisements…………… 43 Figure 4 - Number of times topics were mention in the Financial Times advertisements…… 43 Figure 5 - Illustrative comparison of BP Production and Expenditure (Annex A, Figure A1).. 53 Figure 6 - Average lifecycle GHG emissions for coal and different sources of gas in China in 2025………………………………………………………………………………………….. 63 Figure 7 - GHG footprints of shale gas, conventional gas, oil, and coal.................................. 64 Figure 8 - Frame from BP’s “Energy for busy lives” video………………………………….. 69 Figure 9 - Frames from BP’s “Energy for busy lives” video…………………………………. 72 Figure 10 - Frames from BP’s “Wind and natural gas” video………………………………… 75 Figure 11 - Frame from BP’s “Solar and natural gas” video…………………………………. 75 Figure 12 - Frame from BP’s “Solar and natural gas” video 76 Figure 13 - Production breakdown of electricity on the British grid (year-long period)………………………………………………………………………………………… 77 Figure 14 - Production breakdown of electricity on the British grid (5 September 2019)………………………………………………………………………………........... 78 Figure 15 - Regional electricity generation by fuel in 2018…………………………............... 79 Figure 16 - Levelised cost of different electricity generation in the UK in 2019…………… 84 Figure 17 - Graph of scenarios regarding future trajectories of global primary energy demand…………………………………………………………………………………............ 95 Tables Page Table 1 - Summary of Advertisements in the Financial Times (January - August 2019)...… 31 Table 2 - Summary table of breaches……………......……………………………………… 35 Table 3 - BP’s CapEx versus BP’s stated level of investments in “low carbon activities” (Annex A, Table A1)………………………………………………………………………… 49 Table 4 - BP hydrocarbon and alternative energy production (mboe/d) (Annex A, Table A3) 50 4 Abbreviations and Units boe/d Barrels of oil equivalent per day bcf/d Billion cubic feet per day CapEx Capital Expenditure GHG Greenhouse gas GWh Gigawatt hour. A Gigawatt is equal to 1,000 megawatts IEA International Energy Agency IPCC Intergovernmental
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