BP eliminates top sustainability role, yielding to investor pressure

Oil and gas firm BP has announced that its EVP of Strategy, Sustainability and Ventures Giulia Chierchia will step down in June, and that her role will be eliminated.

Chierchia joined BP in 2020, at the height of the company’s climate commitments. She was a key hire for BP’s renewable ambitions, as it pledged to cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030, alongside a 35-30% Scope 3 emissions reduction target.

But over the past two years, BP has walked back on these promises – slowly at first, changing the Scope 3 target to 20-30%, then all of a sudden decreasing renewables funding and refocusing on oil and gas expansion this past February.

This return to BP’s traditional business model came with a change of governance, with former CEO Bernard Looney (who had spearheaded BP’s climate transition and hired Chierchia) dismissed in September 2023, and new CEO Murray Auchincloss vowing to undo his predecessor’s strategy change.

Now, Chierchia’s departure and the elimination of the lead sustainability role formalise the full deprioritisation of BP’s sustainability ambitions.

BP’s record losses 

BP’s profits experienced a record drop in the past year, from more than US$2.2 billion in Q1 2024 to just US$687 million in Q1 2025. In this context, one of its largest shareholders, Elliott Investment Management, has reportedly been pushing for Cherchia’s dismissal in order to “improve accountability”.

"As part of our continued drive to simplify our structure, the teams within the (Strategy Sustainability & Ventures) function will be integrated into other functions that will provide clear synergies, enabling quicker decision-making and clearer accountabilities," BP said in a statement alongside its first quarter results this week.

Oil and gas firms move away from energy transition

BP is not the only oil and gas company to vow to expand production in the coming years, even in contradiction with climate targets. Others like Shell and Equinor have made similar decisions – with climate-minded shareholders asking them to explain how more oil production fits with their net zero ambitions.

But it’s not just climate goals that investors are concerned about: the fossil fuel sector has been consistently underperforming the S&P 500 over the last 10 years, and some shareholders believe this trend is bound to continue as the world’s energy transition advances. 

In 2024, fossil fuel stocks reported a 5.72% return, barely one-fifth of the S&P 500’s return of 25.02%, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).