Bob Dudley: ‘There’s a coal-fired power plant starting up every week in eight countries in Asia’

BP’s retiring chief executive has accused campaigners and politicians of oversimplifying the climate change crisis, arguing that natural gas should be a bridge between fossil fuels and renewables.

Bob Dudley, due to step down in February after almost 10 years in charge, said it was “hard to find people who understand the complexity of the energy system” and warned the world would “not even come close” to replacing fossil fuels with renewables in the next two decades.

Dudley’s comments to The Sunday Times follow a year of increasing pressure on energy giants and their investors over climate change.

BP, which produces the equivalent of 3.7m barrels of oil and gas a day and is directly or indirectly responsible for 491m tons of annual carbon emissions