IOCs rewarding execs for fossil fuel growth, despite net-zero targets

While many EU energy companies have set ambitious carbon emission targets, their remuneration policies lag far behind

While there is widespread public acknowledgement from oil and gas companies that the energy transition requires them to change the way they do business, according to research by UK thinktank Carbon Tracker, this has not yet filtered through into their approaches to executive pay. Executives need to be incentivised to move away from hydrocarbons if they are to meet the sweeping targets they have announced to tackle climate change, a trend that accelerated during 2020. But out of the 30 largest listed European, US and Asian IOCs, 27 still directly reward executives for growth in fossil fuel production or reserves to some degree—a figure unchanged since the not-for-profit group’s 2017 survey. T