What is energy transition, and why does Equinor’s energy transition plan fall short?
Energy transition is the move away from fossil fuels and towards clean, renewable energy. In March 2025 Equinor updated their energy transition plan. While Equinor has always been an oil and gas company, this plan marks a shift in Equinor’s strategies. The company is scrapping their renewable energy targets for both investments and production, while increasing their oil and gas production by 10 %.
Read more about Equinor’s updated transition plan from 2025 here.
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As a reaction to Equinor’s rollback on renewables in 2025, a large investor group, Sarasin & Partners, sold their stocks in Equinor, due to the company’s failure to align their strategies and goals to the Paris agreement to limit global warming.
Equinor’s updated energy transition plan is not sufficient to realise climate targets and fails to be aligned with the Paris Agreement. It is also lacking targets for reducing so-called scope 3 emissions, the emissions that stems from the combustion of their oil and gas.
As a Norwegian state-owned company, Equinor has to adhere to the white-paper on state-ownership which requires all state-owned companies to act in line with the Paris Agreement. The UN and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have concluded that there is no room for any new oil, gas or coal infrastructure if we are to keep global temperature increase within 1.5 degree, the safest target we have left. Equinor’s energy transition plan goes against climate science and Norway’s climate commitments.
Let us explore what an energy transition is, how it should be planned strategically, and, importantly, how Equinor plans to execute on its energy transition plan.
What is energy transition?
Energy transition is the move towards sustainable energy, mostly renewable energy, to tackle climate change and limit the consequences of global warming. The global energy sector is shifting from fossil fuel-based systems to renewable energy sources. In other words, energy transition is the overhaul of the structural mechanisms behind supply and consumption in the energy system, which in essence entails a plan for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. By moving away from producing and consuming oil, gas, and coal and towards renewable energy such as solar and wind energy, one can reduce greenhouse gases.
Efforts and initiatives in the industry to realise an energy transition
As explained, an energy transition plan sets forth a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases through phasing out fossil fuels and replacing them with greener alternatives. The introduction of renewable energy into the energy supply mix is naturally the most relevant option. Energy companies also underline the potential of electrification and energy storage as key drivers of the energy transition. There are disagreements between climate organisations and the industry surrounding these initiatives. However, an even more pressing matter is the disconnect between the fossil fuel industry’s reliance on false solutions like electrification and CCS to continue to make new oil and gas investments, and what climate science tells us about the need to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.
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Equinor’s energy transition strategy
Equinor has stated that it expects to produce oil and gas at the same levels in 2030 as in 2022, and continues to explore new oil and gas fields. This does not comply with the global community’s commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius. Parallel to this is Equinor’s ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, while still delivering energy to society. Despite the ambitious goals, the majority of Equinors actual production is still in fossil fuels with less than 1% of their energy production coming from renewable sources.
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Equinor’s Energy Transition Plan
Equinor’s updated energy transition plan is removing their previous target of allocating at least 50% of investments to renewable energy and low-carbon technology by 2030. At the same time, the company is lowering its renewable energy production target from 12–16 GW to 10–12 GW by 2030. Climate targets are also being weakened: the goal of reducing the company’s net carbon intensity is being cut from a 20% reduction by 2030 to just 15–20%.
The transition plan entails emission reductions from scope 1 and 2, but lacks reduction goals for scope 3 emissions. While scope 3 emissions stand for the majority of oil and gas companies’ emissions, Equinor rejects the idea of committing to an absolute reduction of scope 3 emissions.
Still, Equinor claims it will achieve net zero emissions in 2050. Let us dive into how Equinor explains it will reach these goals.
Missed opportunities in the energy transition investments
How are they cutting greenhouse gas emissions?
Equinor claims to cut emissions by investing in low-carbon solutions and finding new opportunities for investments. Carbon offsetting is a method for companies like Equinor to wipe their hands of emissions while also strengthening the production of oil and gas that fuel the climate crisis. Equinor’s emission reduction targets mostly relate to direct emissions from building or operating an oil or gas field rather than the downstream emissions that occur when the oil and gas is burned. Production-related emissions only account for about 4.4 percent of the total emissions. Hence, any reduction in these emissions is only a fragment of the total emissions caused by Equinor’s activities.
Greenwashing and carbon offsetting – Equinor is hiding behind a mask
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False solutions like carbon capture and storage (CCS)
Low-carbon solutions are at the center of Equinor’s transition plan, but these don’t contribute to unlocking the potential of renewable energy and instead slows down the energy transition. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) aims to store CO₂ in old oil and gas reservoirs. However, none of the current CCS projects comes close to capturing 100% of emissions, and projects frequently fail and remain unproven at the scales imagined by big oil because it is extremely costly and energy-intensive.
Is blue hydrogen green?
Blue hydrogen is produced converting fossil gas to hydrogen, and store the CO2 from the fossil gas, while green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gas. Blue hydrogen still has greenhouse gas emissions because no CCS project comes close to capturing all emissions, there are large potential methane leaks in production, and hydrogen is itself an indirect greenhouse gas, by increasing the lifetime of other gases, including methane, in the atmosphere. It also ties up investments in fossil fuels infrastructure that could have been used on renewable energy and the energy transition.
Prediction suggests green hydrogen will soon outstrip blue in cost-efficiency. In any case, the necessity for blue hydrogen remains limited, with renewables proving more cost-effective and cleaner. This means that there will likely never be a large hydrogen export market. Equinor is pushing these unrealistic ‘climate solutions’ to hide the fact that they want to extend the fossil fuel age instead of transitioning to cheaper, cleaner, more efficient renewables.
Investments in renewable energy
Instead of investing fully in renewable energy sources, Equinor is exploring new oil and gas fields globally with promises of local economic boosts. However, Equinor is hiding behind false claims of how lucrative its oil and gas projects will be for the local population. Take the UK as an example where Equinor is pursuing the controversial Rosebank oil field. Due to the investment allowance for new oil and gas developments, Rosebank’s owners Equinor and Ithaca Energy will receive total tax relief of £3.75 billion to develop Rosebank. Rather than contributing to improving energy security or lowering people’s energy bills, Britain is set to make a loss of £750 million pounds over the lifetime of the project.
Equinor should invest in nature-friendly renewable energy projects rather than tying capital up in fossil fuel projects.
Fossil fuels belong in the past – read about the promise of renewable energy
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Equinor’s energy transition strategy hurts Norway’s reputation
The Norwegian government is the majority stakeholder in Equinor and Equinor’s actions directly impact Norway’s global reputation. Equinor’s global projects and its wide expansion fuels the climate crisis, and leaves more and more societies and people dependent on fossil fuel, while halting renewable energy investments.
Additionally, the Norwegian government has updated its expectations to state-owned companies, asking them to set targets and implement measures to reach the goals set by the Paris Agreement.3 Equinor does not meet these expectations.
Many of Equinor’s projects are controversial because they are located in frontier areas and ecologically vulnerable territories. This includes explorations in the Argentine Sea, the Wisting oil field in the Arctic, and the Bay du Nord project in Canada.
Equinor can easily disregard its energy transition plan
An important disclaimer is attached to Equinor’s Energy Transition Plan, which states that Equinor’s ability to meet its net zero and net carbon intensity ambitions is only possible if society’s demands and technological innovation shift. This disclaimer makes it possible for Equinor to escape its ambitions simply by arguing that the government or the industry are not doing enough to facilitate realistic prerequisites for a renewable energy transition.
Equinor must take responsibility for its historic contribution to the climate crisis and its role in prolonging the fossil fuel era. It must change its transition plan to include absolute reduction of emissions in line with climate science, Norway’s nature and climate commitments, and the white-paper on state-ownership. Equinor has the opportunity and moral obligation to be a forerunner in the transition to a renewable future but are instead choosing to prolong the fossil fuel era. It’s not too late for Equinor to change direction and deliver on its climate commitments, but this requires immediate and ambitious action.
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People are rising up against Equinor’s fossil fuel expansion
Equinor’s aggressive pursuit of new oil and gas projects are being met by public, political and legal resistance around the world. We are seeing growing resistance against the UK oil field Rosebank and the Bacalhau project in Brazil. Fossil fuel exploration in the Argentine Sea and the Bay du Nord project in Canada have also been heavily opposed. Bay du Nord has been paused, as has the Wisting oil field in the Arctic, building on the wins against Equinor’s involvement in Canadian tar sands and proposed drilling in the Australian Bight.
List of references:
- Greenpeace Nordic (2023) The truth about Equinor’s global projects, page 4
- WWF (2023) Equinor’s energy transition plan and profitability in a 1.5-degree world, page 7
- WWF (2023) Equinor’s energy transition plan and profitability in a 1.5-degree world, page