Is the oil dead?
Yes and no. The answer is not related to the fact that most of what sustains your lifestyle depends on having working lubricants. Your clothes are an example. Did you know that oil is needed to produce clothes? The spinning machines and needles need oil to reduce friction and work perfectly. You can’t even light a light bulb without lubricants involved. When you take a trip on an electrified train, oil and grease are used in transformers and ball bearings. Oil is also used for the production of plastic which is found in many different products. So oil does not die with the switch to electric cars.
It is not greenwashing that oil consumption per capita in the EU has decreased due to innovations and technological development of more advanced oils that reduce consumption and extend change intervals. Nor that new formulations of motor oils reduce fuel consumption by 1-3% in cars and trucks. This leads to reduced CO2 emissions and lower fuel costs.
At the same time, oil is a fossil material that is not renewable. That in itself is a problem as supply will decrease over time where many sources have already passed their peak. The other problem with our dependence on coal-based fuels is the increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) which in turn have a direct link to the increase in the temperature of our planet and the climate. Although the EU has set an ambitious roadmap for changes where, for example, internal combustion engines are banned from 2035 and where the continent is to become “carbon neutral” by 2050, it believes that many changes are moving too slowly in relation to the goal.
What is sustainable development and what is the responsibility of the oil companies?
Many consumers have the same view of the oil industry as they do of the tobacco industry – that it is a dirty industry that is now trying to become greener in the public eye, but that they bear responsibility for the results of their products. Especially when they tried to cover up how people and the environment are negatively affected or how they try to stop political regulations and laws via lobbyists. Looking back, the oil industry and the car industry have not only opposed changes in the environmental field
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