COP28 team rallies oil and gas industry alliance ahead of climate summit

A new coalition in the oil and gas sector is being put together by the COP28 team behind the United Nations climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, but the initial outline of goals aimed at tackling global warming includes Most of the resulting emissions do not include fossil fuels.

billed as flagship COP28 According to a launch letter seen by the Financial Times, the initiative, tentatively named the Global Decarbonization Coalition, will reduce emissions from direct and emissions derived from the energy companies purchase, known as Scope 1 and 2. It has set a goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

However, the framework outlined in the letter does not include targets for so-called Scope 3 emissions, or indirect emissions, which account for the largest share of pollution in the sector.

The central issue of these emissions was addressed by COP28 president-elect Sultan Al Jaber, head of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, in his speech at the CERAWeek energy conference in March.

At the rally he said: oil and gas industry “Everyone has the capacity and resources to help address Scope 3 emissions.” The sector “needs to step up its game and do more, faster.”

Companies responsible for less than half of global oil and gas production have independently announced plans or targets to reduce their scope 1 and 2 emissions.just a small partAccording to the International Energy Agency, some of them were ambitious enough.

“It’s hard to see much decarbonization at the Global Decarbonization Alliance,” said Thomas Hale, director of the independent research group Net Zero Tracker, adding that the “reliable” oil and gas COP He added that initiatives must address scope 3 emissions.

“The UAE, as an oil and gas producing country, has a huge opportunity to be a transformative force that brings together the entire industry to take this challenge seriously.”

A closed-door workshop will be held next week in the United Arab Emirates to discuss the alliance and interim framework.

COP28 said it would not comment on leaked documents.

A recent letter outlining the goals was addressed to COP industry partners and was sent by COP28 Energy Transition Leader Samir Elshihabi, who worked at the Occidental Petroleum in Abu Dhabi. “We aim to achieve net zero emissions (scopes 1 and 2) under our management by 2050 and work with our partners to achieve the same with our unmanaged assets. We aim to

Although no reference to quantifiable targets for Scope 3 emissions is included, proponents of the planned alliances are encouraged to work with customers, partners, and other energy-intensive industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It said it would be asked to support its “ambition” to reduce

It sets progressive targets for methane in upstream production. Methane is the main component of gas, a major contributor to global warming, and can escape during production and distribution. It is estimated to be responsible for about 30% of the global temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution, and the energy industry accounts for about one-third of the anthropogenic methane.

The letter proposed the goal of ending all regular flaring, where the gas produced during oil production is burned rather than collected.

“We aim to have zero periodic flaring and near-zero methane emissions in our upstream operations by 2030,” he said, without mentioning methane in midstream or pipeline operations. said to

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, launched in 2014 and backed by Saudi Aramco, BP, ExxonMobil and other major oil and gas companies, already has a similar goal of zero methane emissions.

The UAE-backed initiative includes a proposal that oil and gas companies in the Alliance should aim to measure, verify and report progress on reducing emissions, and an initial focus on 2030. It includes a planned investment plan.

Oil countries have consistently said they want to put fossil fuel producers at the center of their efforts to tackle climate change.

At the Petersburg Climate Conference in Germany last week, attended by delegates from more than 40 countries, Jaber said fossil fuels “will continue to play a role in the foreseeable future,” adding that carbon capture and Emphasized the use of storage to capture carbon dioxide emissions. A highly polluting industry, the technology has yet to be proven on a large scale.

An official summary of the Berlin meeting said there had been “a lot of discussion” among delegates about the extent to which carbon capture and storage should be deployed in the energy sector. “Caution” was expressed by some about the “costs, uncertain timescales, potential delays in the transition and environmental impacts” of combining CCS and fossil fuels, it said.

In discussions on increasing renewable energy, “some” countries stressed the need to “replace” clean power sources with fossil fuels, the summary notes.

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