Oil and gas giant BP has again slashed its renewable energy investment and announced more funding for greater fossil fuel production.

In a further row back of climate targets the company has said renewable energy investment will fall by $5bn (£3.95bn) a year to just $1bn to $2bn (£790m to £1.58bn).

Funding for further oil and gas extraction will grow to $10bn (£7.9bn) annually as the business shifts focus back to its original mission of extracting fossil fuels.

Money blog: BA named joint worst airline out of 19 for long-haul flights

New “major” oil and gas projects are to start by the end of 2027 with eight to 10 more to begin by the end of 2030.

The company also said it will have “selective” investment in biogas, biofuels and electric vehicle (EV) charging and “capital-light partnerships” in renewables like wind and solar.

Under the tenure of old chief executive Bernard Looney, BP had dropped its 2020 goal of cutting production, revising it down in 2023 from 40% to 25%. The aim of dropping its oil and gas output by 2030 has been axed.

The International Energy Agency has said no new fossil fuel project is compatible with the globally accepted goal of limiting warming to 1.5C.

But BP now aims to grow production to 2.3 million to 2.5 million barrels of oil a day in 2030.

Why is this happening?

“Today we have fundamentally reset BP’s strategy,” chief executive Murray Auchincloss said.

“This is all in service of sustainably growing cash flow and returns.”

This latest scaleback comes as BP faces pressure from activist investor Elliott Management, which reportedly took a 5% share of the company.

Elliott is renowned for forcing changes in companies to increase the share price and was reportedly pushing for a sale of BP’s renewable arm.

BP’s share price had dipped below the all-time high in February 2023 and company profits have come off the record level in 2022.

Dividends and company performance have been lower at BP than at its energy-producing peers.

The current CEO Mr Auchincloss announced plans in January to cut BP’s workforce by 5% – reducing the headcount by 4,700 – as he sought to achieve $2bn (£1.62bn) of cost savings.

It comes as the world breached the key 1.5-degree threshold in the 12 months from June 2023 to May 2024.

Countries including the UK signed up to the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to the 1.5 target.

There’s been a sector-wide retreat from green investment, however, as US President Donald Trump pledged to “drill baby drill”.

A man has been charged after a three-year-old died in a crash in Manchester on Saturday.

The girl, who died following the incident involving a tram and a van, was named as Louisa ‘Lulu’ Palmisano, from Burnley.

In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said Rawal Rehman, 35, from Manchester, had been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

He will appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court later on Wednesday, the force added.

Police previously said emergency services responded to reports of a road traffic collision in Manchester city centre at around 10am on Saturday.

They said a van was in a collision with a tram, which forced the van on to a pavement where it collided with a pedestrian.

Lulu died after the collision in Mosley Street.

Her parents paid tribute to her, describing her as “the sweetest, kindest, and most generous little girl”.

In a statement issued by police, they said: “Her absence has left a devastating void in our family – she was our only child, our whole world.

“We were simply enjoying a happy family day out in Manchester when this unimaginable tragedy struck.

“In an instant, our lives were shattered beyond repair.

“The pain of losing her is unbearable, and we miss her more than words can ever express.”

The number of convictions linked to a second Post Office IT scandal being investigated for miscarriages of justice – has more than doubled, Sky News has learned.

Twenty-one Capture cases have now been submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for review.

Before Christmas, it was around eight.

They relate to the Capture computing software, which was used in Post Office branches in the 1990s before the infamous faulty Horizon system was introduced.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing after Horizon software caused false shortfalls in branch accounts between 1999 and 2015.

A report last year found that there was a reasonable likelihood that the Capture accounting system, used from the early 1990s until 1999, was also responsible for shortfalls.

If the CCRC finds significant new evidence or legal arguments not previously heard before, cases can be referred back to the Court of Appeal.

Lawyer for victims, Neil Hudgell from Hudgell Solicitors, says the next steps for the Capture cases and the CCRC are still “some months away”.

He said he is also hopeful that the first cases could be referred to the Court of Appeal before the end of this year.

“Certainly we will certainly be lobbying,” he said. “The CCRC will be lobbying, the advisory board will be lobbying any interested parties, that these are hideously damaged people of advancing years who need some peace of mind and the quicker that can happen the better.”

‘We didn’t talk about it’

Among those submitted to the CCRC – Pat Owen’s Capture case was the first.

Her family have kept her 1998 conviction for stealing from her post office branch a secret for 26 years.

Speaking to Sky News they have opened up for the first time about what happened to her.

Pat was a former sub-postmistress, who was found guilty and given a two-year suspended sentence.

She died in 2003 from heart failure.

Her daughters describe her as coming home from court after her conviction “a different woman”.

“We didn’t talk about it,” said Juliet Shardlow. “We didn’t talk about it amongst ourselves as a family, we didn’t talk about it with the extended family.

“Our extended family don’t know.”

David Owen, Pat’s husband, said she lost a lot of weight after her conviction and at 62 years old “looked like an old gal of 90”.

Capture evidence never heard in court

Pat’s family kept all the documents from her case safe for over two decades and now a key piece of evidence may turn the tide on her conviction, and potentially help others.

A document summarising the findings of an IT expert described the computer Pat used as having “a faulty motherboard”.

It also stated that this “would have produced calculation errors and may have been responsible for the discrepancies subsequently identified by Post Office Counters’ Security and Investigation team.”

Read more from Sky News:
Sub-postmasters: ‘Still going through hell’
Compensation for victims of Capture
Calls on Fujitsu for compensation

The computer expert was due to give evidence in Pat Owen’s defence at court as part of her trial – but failed to turn up on the day.

The family say they never found out exactly why he didn’t show up at court.

David said there was a computer all set up in the courtroom for the expert to use to show malfunctions.

“I heard, now I can’t remember who from, that he’d done work for the Post Office,” he said.

“If he turned up to be a witness in court for us to he wouldn’t get any more work from the Post Office.”

Despite best efforts the expert has never been tracked down. The Post Office has declined to comment.

David also described how his wife never expected to lose her case.

“She was so confident. She knew she didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.

“But when the guilty verdict came out she actually fell to her knees in the dock crying her eyes out shaking.”

He said the judge then asked if he wanted to say anything, and David said he got up in court and spoke at length about his wife’s innocence.

The government announced in December that they will be setting up a redress scheme for Capture victims, similar to Horizon.

So far around 100 people who suffered after being accused of stealing from their branch, while using Capture, could be eligible for redress.