A company is led into the future by its Management. Mainly the CEO is responsible for fundamental corporate decisions and thus bears the responsibility for the future of the company and the future of the employees. So what is Rainer Seele's position on the necessary transformation of OMV towards a green future?
Rainer Seele makes it clear on many occasions that he sees OMV's future in the oil and gas business and that his primary concern is to make short-term profit for his shareholders: "I am a business representative. If I like something more than CO2 emissions, it is of course the money we have to earn" as the OMV CEO put it in a recent interview. In addition, he sees too few profit opportunities for his investors in the field of renewable energies and accordingly no need for OMV to get involved there:"A good reason why we are not investing into renewables is that we don’t have really convincing business models for you. If I cannot present to you a double-digit rate of return on my investments which I can’t calculate in renewable power projects, I think I will disappoint you on our ROACE targets." A future without oil and gas is inconceivable for the OMV CEO and oil and gas are still part of the company’s growth strategy: "If we don't want to cut back on the further development of social systems, including on other continents, we will be very dependent on oil and gas in the medium to longer term ."
The company's CEO's statements run counter to all scientific calls for a low-carbon world by 2040. The science is clear here: we must limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees as agreed in the Paris Agreement in order to stop the climate crisis and secure our livelihood. If we fail to do so, weather and climate systems will change, weather disasters will increase, sea levels will rise and entire parts of the world will become uninhabitable. As a consequence, this will trigger massive global refugee movements. Thus, exactly the opposite of the CEO's forecast is happening - the further development of social systems will experience setbacks, precisely if we continue to rely on oil and gas; because it is those fossil raw materials that are fueling the climate crisis and the destruction of the livelihoods of millions of people. Already today, more oil and gas reserves have been tappedthan we are allowed to burn according to the Paris Climate Agreement. Nevertheless, OMV under Rainer Seele is not stopping exploring more. A declaration of intent for further fields was recently signed in Algeria.
Rainer Seele in particular often likes to shift the responsibility onto consumers. "I produce the gasoline, but you cause the emissions" as the OMV CEO put it. Well, what about Rainer Seele's personal carbon footprint? In 2020, a “Dossier” article caused quite a scandal, showing how the CEO's excessive luxury lifestyle not only eats up hundreds of thousands of euros, but also contributes considerably to the climate crises. It can be assumed that €400,000, or almost half a million, has been spent on Seele's private flights alone since 2016. At the same time, flying is considered to be extremely climate-damaging. A flight is comparatively 31 times more harmful to the climate than a trip by train and could easily be avoided, especially on short-haul flights within Austria, e.g. from Vienna to Klagenfurt and Innsbruck.
But Rainer Seele's behavior is not only questionable from an ecological point of view. When it comes to social justice, the million salary of the OMV boss makes one wonder. With 7.2 million Euros in 2019, he is considered the best-earning manager in Austria, earning over 20,000€. Per day. While Seele made cuts across the company in the wake of the Corona crisis, his salary remained stable.
Rainer Seele's actions therefore present a completely different picture than his empty promises on climate ambition. The CEO refuses to see the necessary transformation and makes his decisions in favor of short-term profits for investors. In order to secure jobs in the long term, however, a business model is needed that turns away from fossil and climate-damaging forms of energy. Only in this way can the company become truly sustainable.