trencher

Politicians and businesses in Japan, seeking a quick fix, are arguing for investment in more supplies of L.N.G. and a return, at least in the short term, to coal and nuclear, said Gregory Trencher, an associate professor at Kyoto University who studies energy policy.

"There's a lot of talk now, and there was a lot of talk in the past, but especially in the long period that we looked at, there's been very, very little action," said Gregory Trencher, a coauthor of the study and an environmental studies professor at Kyoto University in Japan.

Chevron and Exxon's spending on clean energy was so insignificant it was "almost absent," said Trencher, with Chevron spending a mere 0.23 percent and Exxon 0.22 percent of their total capital expenditures — the money a company uses to buy and maintain its physical assets — on developing low-carbon energy from 2010 to 2018.

If oil companies were truly trying to switch to clean energy, Trencher said, you'd expect to see a shrinking emphasis on fossil fuels in their everyday business — such as a slowdown in searching for new oil and gas reserves.

The company's target of reducing exploration by 2025, Trencher said, may have "triggered a rush before the deadline for them."