Purpose, collaboration and imagination

Here in the UK - and in many other countries around the world - we are entering what is likely to be the worst period of the COVID-19 crisis. At times like this our priority is the welfare of family and friends and how we can help our communities through this.

This also applies to governments who are dedicating all their resources to the immediate crisis. I was sorry to hear that the international climate summit COP26 in Glasgow has been postponed but the UK and Italian governments and those at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have made the right decision. Rescheduling the meeting will strengthen the chance of achieving an ambitious outcome.

Recently I have been asked whether the pandemic – combined with the breakdown in the OPEC+ alliance – means that we are going to abandon or water down our ambition to ‘get to net zero by 2050 or sooner and to help the world do the same’.

The answer is no. In fact the current crisis has reinforced my belief in reimagining energy and reinventing bp. Climate change and the drive for the world to get to net zero have not gone away. Even while the world comes together to fight COVID-19. As Patricia Espinosa, the top UN climate official said “this is a chance for nations to recover better."

Today this cruel pandemic is showing us much about what really matters. When ‘tomorrow’ comes – and it will – we have to learn all the lessons we can from this experience. I would highlight three:

First - purpose is not a ‘nice to have’ for businesses. We are part of society, and never more so than in a crisis. How companies treat their employees, support their communities, coordinate with governments and work with shareholders will really matter over the coming weeks and months. And then after - to rebuild and recover.

And in the same way, I believe that how we all respond to the challenge of climate change matters too. If we can’t find ways to help our societies meet this challenge, then what are we here for? This crisis has helped make clear that the world in which the sole objective of a company’s purpose is to maximise profit is no longer acceptable. Taxpayers and governments have stepped up to support many businesses and their employees through this difficult time - and they will understandably expect business to be shoulder to shoulder with them. That is not in any way to suggest that business doesn’t work to deliver value for shareholders – just that there need not be a tradeoff – and the ‘how’ really matters.

Second, we cannot solve these problems alone – not one person, company, or country. COVID-19 spread rapidly across the world. It cannot be tackled by any single nation, and responses will be needed around the world to combat it. Climate change is the same - no respecter of borders and demanding of action from us all.

In both cases the decisions each of us makes can impact others. We cannot escape the effects of other people’s actions - just as they cannot escape ours. There needs to be coordination, both locally and globally. Just like COVID-19 the resources needed to tackle climate change – capital, tech, expertise - are distributed unevenly both within countries and between countries. We have to find ways of bringing them together. The rescheduled COP26 will be critical.

Third, we will need to use our imaginations. That might sound strange, but to understand and respond to the threat of climate change we need to imagine the risks of inaction, the range of responses available to us and their implications. This is what the scale and severity of COVID-19 is forcing us to do today as the worst impacts cross the boundary from imagination into reality.

People talk about “the art of the possible”, the current crisis is redefining “possible” day by day. We should reflect on that next time someone says that tackling climate change is too difficult, or too costly. It is no coincidence that BP’s purpose is ‘reimagining energy for people and our planet’.

We will all be touched by the pandemic over the coming months, some in the worst possible ways. It will be tough. Stress can reinforce divisions. But we have also seen the best in people in recent weeks supporting each other. To tackle climate change we will once again need to call on the best in people - for the good of everyone.