[font face=Serif][font size=5]Green really is the new black as Big Oil gets a taste for renewables[/font]

[font size=4]Shell, Total, Statoil, even Exxon - they’re all at it. But are the recent moves into solar and wind power lip service, fashion, or a real shift away from fossil fuels?[/font]

Terry Macalister
@TerryMac999
Saturday 21 May 2016 11.00 EDT

[font size=3]The world’s largest oil companies have in recent weeks announced a series of “green” investments – in wind farms, electric battery storage systems and carbon capture and storage (CCS). These unexpected moves come hot on the heels of revelations by Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, that it plans to sell off parts of its national oil company and diversify its economy away from petroleum.

They also come in the aftermath of a United Nations climate change agreement and before annual general meetings for Shell and Exxon Mobil this week, meetings at which shareholders will demand that more be done to tackle climate change.

So has the fossil fuel industry finally woken up to the dangers posed to their futures by a move to a low-carbon world, or is this all “greenwash” – relatively insignificant investments designed to shake off critics?

Or does it just make good business sense for Big Oil to do this at a time when oil prices are low, renewable projects look like steady long-term investments, and green businesses can be snapped up on the cheap?

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