Cop: Oil, gas pledge operations emissions cuts: Update

Market: Crude oil, LPG, Natural gas, Oil products, Petrochemicals
02/12/23

Updates with Cop president quotes

A total of 50 oil and gas companies, representing over 40pc of global oil production, today signed the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, pledging to "net-zero operations" by 2050 and "near-zero upstream methane emissions" by 2030.

Signatories promised to end routine flaring by 2030. The charter also commits them to "work towards industry best practices in emission reductions", as well as increase transparency, including through measuring, monitoring, and reporting on their emissions and progress in cutting these. The companies have also pledged to invest in "the energy system of the future including renewables, low-carbon fuels and negative emissions technologies".

The charter is part of the overarching Global Decarbonisation Accelerator, launched today at the Cop 28 UN climate summit in Dubai, UAE, where 118 countries also agreed to triple the world's renewable energy generation capacity and to double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements.

Of the oil and gas charter signatory firms, over 60pc are state-owned or state-controlled oil companies. They include the UAE's Adnoc and Snoc, Norway's Equinor, Kazakhstan's Kazmunaigas, Nigeria's NNPC, Indonesia's Pertamina, Brazil's Petrobras, Saudi Arabia's Aramco and Azerbaijan's Socar. International oil company signatories include BP, Eni, ExxonMobil, Lukoil, Mitsui, Occidental, Repsol, Shell and TotalEnergies.

"Whilst many national oil companies have adopted net zero 2050 targets for the first time, I know that they and others, can and need to do more. We need the entire industry to keep 1.5°C within reach and set even stronger ambitions for decarbonisation", Cop 28 president Sultan al-Jaber, who is also chief executive of Abu Dhabi's state-owned Adnoc, said.

"The oil and gas companies that joined the charter committed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, but this is only for their own operations," research organisation WRI global climate programme director Melanie Robinson said, referring to the so-called scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. It does not cover the emissions from the fuel they sell, or scope 3.

Al-Jaber acknowledged this today saying that the sector "must tackle the harder part of all scope 1 and 2 emissions," and added that the industry must also "invest much more in clean energy and other clean technologies to help address scope 3."

Civil society organisation Oil Change International Oil Change International David Tong warned that the deal was filled with "recycled commitments" and that the pledge cannot be a substitute for a formal negotiated outcome at Cop 28.

By Georgia Gratton and Nader Itayim

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17/12/25

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LNG supply growth outstrips carrier orderbook to 2030

17/12/25

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17/12/25

LNG supply growth outstrips carrier orderbook to 2030

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Libyan oil firms bypass government to sell crude

17/12/25

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Libyan oil firms bypass government to sell crude

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Cop: Oil, gas pledge operations emissions cuts: Update

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