BP 2005 Annual Report Download - page 22

20 Making energy more
of different starting points, perspectives, priorities and
solutions, and includes the many potential contributors to
the common goal of addressing climate change. BP’s own
actions will focus on engaging in informed external dialogue
to influence policy, regulation and innovation and on our own
business activities.
BP Alternative Energy In 2005, BP established a new
business called BP Alternative Energy to generate and
market cleaner, low-carbon power from solar, wind,
hydrogen and natural gas sources. Globally, the power
sector is the biggest source of GHG emissions –
responsible for about twice the emissions of the transport
sector – so creating lower-carbon power is critical in the
effort to stabilize global GHG emissionsa. BP believes some
40% of the power-generating capacity required to meet
projected world electricity demand in 2020 has yet to be
built, which is why a major impact on emissions can be
achieved by deploying lower-carbon technologies.
Sustainable transportation In 2005, we continued to create
and market a range of cleaner fuels and products for
the transport sector. We continued the roll-out of BP
Ultimate, launched in 2003, in five new markets. This fuel
delivers reductions in emissions such as carbon monoxide
and nitrogen oxide compared with standard fuels.
We blend biocomponents into diesel fuels in Germany,
Austria and France. In 2005, we also introduced bioderived
ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) to gasoline markets in
France and increased our production and supply in Germany.
In the US, we are one of the largest blenders of bioethanol
with gasoline and, in 2005, we introduced gasoline-ethanol
blends to more than 20 new US markets. We also continue
to carry out research on a new generation of advanced
biofuels, which have potential to deliver substantially
reduced overall emissions.
We contributed to the development of a revised
directive on air quality, which was published by the
European Commission in September 2005 with new draft
proposals for controls on fine particle concentrations.
While there was a new focus on hydrogen for power
generation in 2005, we also continued to explore the use
of hydrogen as a transport fuel through a set of incubator
activities. The aim of these is to understand how the market
is likely to develop and how costs can be made competitive.
Examples are the supply of hydrogen to fleets of cars under
a US Department of Environment programme that started
in 2004 and construction, in partnership with government
agencies, of a hydrogen fuel station in Beijing, China, for a
fleet of hydrogen buses for the 2008 Olympics.
BP is also supporting projects at Tsinghua University
in Beijing and Imperial College London, UK, to investigate
the transportation and energy issues arising from the
growth of urban areas, especially in Asia.
BP AND DEVELOPMENT
We seek to make a positive contribution to social and
economic development wherever we operate. Much
of our impact comes from the hiring and training of
local employees and the sourcing of supplies from local
companies, often working towards specific targets in
each area.
Development is also affected by the way in which
resource revenues are spent by governments. During
2005, we continued to support the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI), becoming a member of its
International Advisory Group. The EITI provides guidelines
for publicly disclosing the amount of revenue governments
receive from energy companies, so people can see how
much is available for public spending. In particular, BP
continues to support the implementation of the EITI in
Azerbaijan, publishing relevant figures in our reports there
in 2005. We have also funded a new research centre
at Oxford University, UK, which will conduct academic
research on resource-rich economies and share best
practice in managing energy revenues effectively.
We can also make direct contributions through
community programmes. Our total contribution in 2005
was $95.5 million. This includes $0.8 million contributed
by BP to UK charities. In 2005, our community investment
totalled $79.7 million. The growing focus of this is on
education, the development of local enterprise and providing
access to energy in remote locations. We plan to spend
about $500 million in each five-year cycle focusing on these
areas, with enough flexibility to respond to local needs
as appropriate.
In 2005, we spent $50.2 million promoting education,
with investment in three broad areas: energy and the
environment, business leadership skills and basic education
in developing countries where we operate large projects.
In 2005, we also invested $9.6 million in support of
enterprise development, encouraging the creation and
growth of new businesses. In Azerbaijan, we support an
enterprise centre that helps local start-ups and provides
loans for small and medium-sized enterprises. We support
micro-finance systems to make loans to small businesses
in Trinidad & Tobago, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Colombia
and Vietnam. In 2005, we launched a similar programme
in Angola.
We also help combat poverty by providing access to
energy in many countries, working alongside governments,
NGOs and aid agencies. For example, we provide solar
power for rural communities such as in Algeria, Sri Lanka
and the Philippines, and we are developing a new business
in India to help provide a cleaner system for cooking,
combining a LPG and biomass burner.
aWorld Energy Outlook 2004,IEA.