The President of COP28 calls on oil and gas companies to reduce their emissions

The Emirati President of COP28, Sultan Al-Jaber, on Thursday in Vienna appealed to oil and gas companies, particularly national ones, to commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, as long as the world consumes fossil fuels. For the president of the next UN climate conference in November-December in Dubai, the oil and gas industry must “decarbonize its operations urgently”. It must "take collective measures to eliminate operational emissions" of greenhouse gases (known as "scopes" 1 and 2), declared Sultan Al-Jaber, responsible for coordinating and influencing the negotiations without being a decision maker. -even.

These emissions represent 15 to 20% of the carbon footprint of the companies concerned, the vast majority coming from the combustion itself of products such as gasoline or gas. "The whole industry - the international majors and the national companies - must align to reach net zero by 2050 or before," said Sultan Al-Jaber, who also serves as CEO of the company. national Emirati company ADNOC, during a seminar of OPEC, the cartel of oil-producing countries.

His appeal is specifically aimed at national companies (the “NOCs” in English), which are wholly or partly owned by States, as in the Gulf countries, China, Iran. Western private majors like Shell, BP and TotalEnergies generally already have greenhouse gas reduction targets, and represent “only” 15% of world oil and gas production. On the other hand, national companies account for at least half of world oil and gas production. “Second, we must accelerate an industry-wide commitment to achieve near-zero methane emissions by 2030,” he added of the other big greenhouse gas after. CO2, which is the molecule of natural gas and escapes in large volumes from gas fields and pipelines.

“If we do that, it supports a massive proportion of the operational” emissions of the sector. “Third, we need to monitor, measure and validate progress at every step of the process,” he added. Sultan Al-Jaber points out, according to his antiphon, that “the demand for energy will only increase, because half a billion more people will join our planet”. “Therefore, the critical challenge of this century is to significantly reduce emissions, while maintaining robust sustainable development”, repeats the President of COP28, who is banking on still immature carbon capture technologies to reduce emissions linked to hydrocarbons.