While OMV's sustainability strategy is prominently communicated to the outside world, many promises turn out to be without real effort at second glance. Greenpeace reveals how to read the following eight sustainability promises and what really lies behind them.
"By 2025, low-CO2/CO2-free products should make up at least 60% of the portfolio."(Source)
In this promise gas is also included in the term “Low-CO2 products”. Yet this fossil fuel is by no means low in CO2 or even climate-neutral – it only produces slightly fewer CO2 emissions during combustion than coal or oil. In addition, the gas industry is struggling with Gasindustrie mit entweichendem Methan Methan is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more climate-damaging than CO2. That's why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also calls for gas consumption to fall by 25% worldwide.OMV, however, is doing the opposite and plans to increase. However, the increased gas share does not compensate for the oil share, but the oil production volume remains stable, while the gas production volume continues to increase.
2) "Our entire business activity should be climate-neutral by 2050 at the latest."(Source)
This promise only covers those greenhouse gas emissions that are directly generated in OMV's own sites and by OMV's energy suppliers. This does not include the emissions that occur when oil and gas is consumed – i.e. when gas is burned for heating or gasoline is burned in the car. But the latter is the majority: 92% of the emissions for which OMV is responsible occur not in production, but in the consumption of oil and gas. These are excluded from the promise of climate neutrality.
3) "Up to 500 million euros of investments in innovative energy solutions by 2025."(Source)
OMV announced plans to invest up to 500 million euros in innovative energy solutions by 2025. However, with annual sales of €23.46 billion in 2019, it quickly becomes clear that OMV is investing a mere €100 million per year, or 0.43% of its sales, in innovative energy solutions. Since a transformation of OMV out of oil and gas is necessary, this sum is not remotely sufficient to sustainably transform the company.
4) "Gas is environmentally friendly."(Source)
When burned, fossil gas causes significant amounts of climate-damaging CO2 emissions. In addition, methane leakage occurs - mainly in the upstream sector during the extraction of oil and gas, but also during the transportation and storage of fossil gas - this means that large quantities of methane leak directly into the air. Since methane is around 25 times more damaging to the climate than CO2, this has a major impact on the climate crisis. OMV's methane emissions also vary widely per year - in 2019, 49,376 metric tons of methane emissions were reported; converted into CO2 equivalents, that's 1.23 million metric tons per year. That is as much as 630,000 cars cause per year, which is just less than all the passenger cars registered in Vienna.
5) "In the long term, we will need new technologies such as CO2 capture, utilization or storage."(Source)
In Austria, CO2 storage is prohibited by law because the technology of carbon dioxide storage is not yet ready for the market and considered unsafe. If CO2 is pumped underground in large quantities, negative consequences for the environment and people cannot be ruled out. In addition, the prospect of this questionable solution can act as a false justification for "business as usual" in oil and gas production, when in fact there is still no solution at all ready for safe storage. And we are running out of time: global greenhouse gas emissions must fall to zero by 2050 to stabilize the climate system. We cannot afford to rely on questionable technology - and neither can OMV.
6) "The acquisition of Borealis sets the course for a lower CO2 future."(Source)
OMV's argument for buying Borealis is to focus more on refining instead of burning fossil fuels, thereby improving OMV's carbon footprint. Borealis is a global player in the plastics industry - with CO2 emissions of 4.6 million tons in 2019, so this is by no means a climate-friendly investment. The problem with the refinement of oil is that not only long-lasting products are created in the process, but also large quantities of disposable plastic with high energy input - which after all often end up right back in the incinerator causing massive CO2 emissions.
7) "ReOil as an opportunity for a circular economy."(Source)
Oil becomes plastic and plastic becomes oil again? Sounds too simple to be true - and it is. The biggest catch is that the process is very energy-intensive. In a world where much of the energy is generated from fossil fuels, and thus energy consumption contributes massively to the climate crisis, we must not only rely on renewable energy, but also need to use our energy more efficiently. We simply do not have the luxury of relying on a very energy-intensive circular economy. The goal must be to avoid producing plastic in the first place, and instead rely on long-lasting and reusable products. In addition, ReOil remains a drop in the bucket: even if OMV were to succeed in processing a third of Austria's plastic waste into ReOil, the amount of oil thus obtained would only be equivalent to just under 2.9 percent of the amount of crude oil produced annually by OMV.
8) "We are aware of our responsibility and support the Paris Agreement and the EU climate targets."(Source)
OMV spends around 500.000 € on lobbying at the EU level, according to the public register, including being a member of the Business Europe association. Business Europe is known for actively opposing ambitious EU climate targets and criticized the planned increase of the EU climate target (current climate target: -40% emissions by 2030). In order to achieve the Paris targets and to limit climate heating to 1.5 degrees, a reduction of around 65% is necessary in the EU. Anyone who blocks this increase is therefore also rejecting the Paris climate agreement and thus a sustainable future.