Clarifies methane initiative developed by OGCI
The phase down of fossil fuels is "essential" to hit climate goals but cannot be "irresponsible", president-designate of the UN Cop 28 climate summit Sultan al-Jaber told delegates in a video address to the Opec seminar in Vienna.
Al-Jaber last month at a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bonn, Germany warned that the phase down of fossil fuels is inevitable and said it again today to industry delegates comprising oil producers and consumers. But he added that it was "essential", in a marginal strengthening of his position on the issue, moving towards Cop 28, which will start in late November in Dubai.
He reiterated that he is aiming for Cop 28 to be "truly inclusive", meaning including the oil and gas industry and leveraging its skills.
Al-Jaber is chief executive of the UAE's state-owned oil company Adnoc and chairman of the country's state-owned renewables company Masdar. He called for oil companies — international oil companies (IOCs) and national oil companies (NOCs) — to reach net zero emissions by or before 2050.
The oil and gas industry "for too long… has been viewed by some as part of the problem", al-Jaber said. "Now is the time to step up", he added.
Al-Jaber had already asked the oil and gas industry earlier this year to "up its game, do more and do it faster" by decarbonising operations and help customers reduce their emissions. Today he also told the industry to allocate "capital at scale" towards clean energy solutions.
He also said that the industry has to accelerate "an industry-wide commitment" to reach near zero methane emissions by 2030.
Some companies in the oil and gas sector have pledged — under the Aiming for net zero methane emissions initiative developed by Oil and Gas Climate Initiative's (OGCI) — to reach a similar target and to encourage others to set similar goals. OGCI comprises 12 of the world's leading energy companies, including BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Chevron and ExxonMobil as well as state-owned Saudi Aramco.
But existing methane commitments, including the global methane pledge, have not been discussed in detail at the seminar by oil and gas representatives. The pledge signed by 150 countries aims to cut methane emissions by 30pc from 2020 levels by 2030.
TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne in Vienna yesterday said that the oil industry must demonstrate its commitment to cut emissions from oil and gas output.
Al-Jaber also called on countries to update their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — or emissions reduction pledges — "as aggressively as possible" to ensure that they are aligned with net zero by 2050.
The UAE approved an updated National Energy Strategy on 3 July targeting 14GW capacity of clean power by 2030, and al-Jaber said it submitted an updated NDC to the UNFCCC.
He said the country's NDC now aims for emissions reductions of 40pc by 2030 compared with a business as usual scenario. The UAE aims to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 19pc from a 2019 baseline, the UAE state news agency WAM reported.
In a roadmap presented at Cop 27 last year, the UAE issued an absolute emission reduction target of 18pc by 2030, 60pc by 2040 and 100pc by 2050, all from a 2019 baseline.
The UAE's new energy strategy is in line with the country's "steadfast commitment to the Paris agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, its energy ministry said.
The Paris deal calls for global warming to stay "well below" 2°C compared with pre-industrial temperatures by the end of the century, ideally limiting the rise to 1.5°C.
Al-Jaber has repeatedly said that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C is "non-negotiable".
