The world’s largest oil companies reported solid earnings and strong cash flow generation for the first quarter. But all those profits had very little to do with the pledges from Europe’s major oil firms to boost investment in renewables and work more for low-carbon energy solutions to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The main driver of the higher earnings—in Exxon’s case a return to earnings after four consecutive quarters of losses—was the recovery of oil prices during the first quarter this year. All supermajors benefited much more from the rising oil and gas prices and profitable oil and gas trading than from their investments in renewable energy. If anyone at all had expected a pivot to renewables to start bringing in loads of cash for Big Oil less than a year after all the pledges for net-zero emissions and increased investment in low-carbon energy, they haven’t been paying attention […]