Despite years of glossy sustainability campaigns and promises to lead the energy transition, the world’s largest oil and gas companies control less than 1.5 percent of all renewable power capacity on the planet. That finding, drawn from a new analysis by researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, challenges the notion that fossil fuel majors are truly pivoting toward clean energy.
Marcel Llavero Pasquina and Antonio Bontempi examined ownership data from more than 53,000 renewable projects around the world, including wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal facilities. The database, maintained by Global Energy Monitor, tracks developments across the full global energy landscape. When the researchers compared those projects against the world’s 250 biggest oil and gas producers, which are responsible for nearly 90 percent of total hydrocarbon output, they found a clear gap between corporate rhetoric and reality.
According to the study, oil and gas companies collectively own just 1.42 percent of the world’s operating renewable capacity. Of that small portion, more than half was acquired through mergers or project purchases, not developed internally. When the team compared total energy production from these firms, renewables accounted for only 0.13 percent of their combined output.
“The results were surprising, even for me,” said Llavero Pasquina. “I knew they were playing a very little role in the energy transition. I knew it was mostly for show, for dressing their narrative. But I didn’t expect this low number.”
Both Llavero Pasquina and Bontempi belong to Environmental Justice, a research group that studies global environmental and social impacts of industry. They argue that transparency in corporate energy ownership is essential for accountability, especially as companies continue to advertise their commitment to sustainability. Llavero Pasquina also defended the objectivity of their findings, saying his advocacy background makes accuracy more important, not less. “You have to convince, and to do that you have to show what’s true,” he said.
A Symbolic Commitment, Not a Structural One
For many industry watchers, the findings confirm what they have suspected for years, that big oil’s investments in renewables are symbolic rather than structural. Thierry Bros, a professor at Sciences Po in Paris and a longtime energy analyst, said the results should surprise no one. “At the end of the day, the energy transition has to be something disruptive,” he said. “It is not going to be in the hands of those companies.”
Bros believes oil majors are overemphasizing their role in clean energy development to preserve public image and investor confidence. Instead of direct renewable expansion, he said their focus will likely remain on technologies that complement fossil fuels, such as carbon capture and storage. “They are portraying themselves as doing something,” he said, “but if they were to really act, it would be in carbon capture and sequestration. They are not doing much in renewables because it is completely outside their domain of expertise.”
Most oil and gas companies have opted for carbon management and hydrogen development as their preferred low carbon pathways. Those projects allow them to use existing infrastructure and skills without completely changing their business model. The overlap with refining, subsurface engineering, and pipeline networks makes these technologies more compatible with current operations than large scale solar or wind development.
The Future of Integration
Offshore Energies UK, the industry body representing the United Kingdom’s offshore energy sector, declined to directly address the study’s findings. However, the group pointed to earlier comments from its chief executive, David Whitehouse. “Far from being in conflict, oil and gas, wind, and emerging low carbon technologies are part of one integrated system,” Whitehouse said. “It is the skills of our people, the same people who built the North Sea, that will deliver this transition.”
That statement highlights a central tension within the energy industry, whether the transition to renewables requires a complete reinvention of traditional oil companies or if they can realistically evolve into diversified energy providers. Supporters of integration argue that fossil fuel firms possess the technical capacity and capital to scale up clean energy faster than independent developers. Critics counter that their business models, shareholder expectations, and corporate cultures are still tied to hydrocarbon growth.
While some supermajors such as BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies have made public investments in renewables, those ventures remain small compared to their oil and gas portfolios. Recent strategic shifts also suggest a pullback in ambition. BP, for example, eased its 2030 emissions targets in 2023, citing shareholder pressure and the need to maintain oil and gas supply amid global energy volatility.
The reality is that renewables deliver lower margins and slower payback than traditional oil projects. That economic gap continues to limit the scale and urgency of the transition within the sector. Without stronger regulatory incentives or market pressure, the pace of change is likely to remain slow.
As the global push toward net zero accelerates, oil and gas firms face growing scrutiny over how much of their transition talk translates into real action. This new research puts numbers behind what many analysts have long suspected, that the world’s biggest energy producers are still anchored to fossil fuels, with only token participation in the clean energy revolution. For now, the green branding remains more of a marketing strategy than a measurable shift in global energy production.
