The Chief Executive Officers of 10 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies have recently declared their collective support for an effective climate change agreement to be reached at next month’s United Nations conference.
In their milestone declaration, BG Group, BP, Eni, Pemex, Reliance Industries, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Statoil and Total confirmed that they recognise the general ambition to limit global average temperature rise to 2 degrees centigrade and that the existing trend of the world’s net global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is not consistent with this ambition.
Together these companies provide almost a fifth of all oil and gas production and supply nearly 10 per cent of the world’s energy.
The companies have taken significant actions to reduce their GHG footprint, with combined GHG emissions from their operations reducing by around 20 per cent over the past 10 years.
In their declaration the 10 CEOs said, “Our shared ambition is for a 2°C future. It is a challenge for the whole of society. We are committed to playing our part. Over the coming years we will collectively strengthen our actions and investments to contribute to reducing the GHG intensity of the global energy mix. Our companies will collaborate in a number of areas, with the aim of going beyond the sum of our individual efforts.”
The companies also launched its collaborative report – ‘More energy, lower emissions’ – highlighting practical actions taken by member companies to improve GHG emissions management and work towards improving climate change impacts in the longer term. These actions include significant investments in natural gas, carbon capture and storage, and renewable energy, as well as low-GHG research and development.
Together the declaration and report set out key areas where the OGCI companies will focus their collaboration, including:
Efficiency: optimising efficiency of their own operations; improving the end-use efficiency of their fuels and other products; and working with manufacturers and consumers to improve the efficiency of road vehicles.
Natural gas: contributing to increasing the share of gas in the global energy mix, ensuring it results in significantly lower lifecycle emissions than other fossil fuels for power generation; eliminating ‘routine’ flaring and reducing methane emissions from their operations.
Long-term solutions: investing in R&D and innovation to reduce GHG emissions; participating in partnerships to progress carbon capture and storage; contributing to increasing the share of renewables in the global energy mix.
Energy access: developing projects to provide people with access to energy in partnership with local and national authorities and other stakeholders.
Partnerships and multi-stakeholder initiatives: seeking opportunities to accelerate climate change solutions by working collectively or individually in industry and other initiatives.
