Does the oil industry contribute to deepening the climate crisis or help solve it?

CNN monitored a report by the International Energy Agency in which it said that oil and gas producers have two options: either to continue accelerating the climate crisis or to become part of its solution.

According to the report issued on Thursday, the industry currently provides only 1% of global investment in clean energy, and continues to pump catastrophic amounts of gases that cause global warming, including methane, which is about eighty times stronger than carbon dioxide in the long term. near. The IEA said that if the world is to have any chance of stopping global warming at 1.5% above pre-industrial levels, radical action is needed on both fronts, and quickly.

This warning comes ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP28), which begins next week in Dubai. A recent United Nations analysis showed that the planet is expected to warm by about 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Scientists believe that a rise in temperatures of this magnitude could push the world towards a number of catastrophic and irreversible tipping points, such as polar ice avalanches.

Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, said that the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) represents a pivotal moment for the oil and gas industry. He added, “Given the escalating climate crisis and its profound global consequences, the status quo has become socially unacceptable and environmentally unsound,” according to CNN.

Presenting the report, titled “The Oil and Gas Industry and the Transition to Zero Emissions,” Birol told reporters on Thursday that there are two measures that the industry must take to do its part in limiting global warming to the internationally agreed level of 1.5 degrees.

The first measure, according to Birol, is to reduce pollution resulting from heating the planet from special processes, such as extracting oil and gas from the ground, processing the fuel, and delivering it to consumers. These three activities generate approximately 15% of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Birol stressed that these emissions, including methane emissions, can be fixed easily, quickly, and in many cases in a cost-effective manner.

The International Energy Agency’s report calls for reducing this pollution by more than 60% by 2030, compared to the current level.

Clean investments

The second action recommended by the agency is to significantly increase investments in renewable energy by oil and gas companies, which have been a “marginal force” in the transition to clean energy, the report said.

The IEA found that the industry invested about $20 billion in clean energy projects last year, just about 2.5% of its total capital spending. She indicated the need for this percentage to rise to 50% by 2030, to help keep global warming at a less dangerous level of 1.5 degrees.

Such an increase would mean a radical change in how oil and gas companies spend their money. During the period between 2018 and 2022, the industry achieved revenues amounting to about $17 trillion, 40% of which was spent on developing and operating oil and gas assets, and 10% went to investors, and was invested Limited amount in clean energy, according to the International Energy Agency report.

Oil and gas companies are investing in carbon capture technologies to remove carbon pollution from the air and capture what power plants and industrial facilities produce. The captured carbon can then be stored or reused, and Birol told reporters that carbon capture is not the solution.

He said that technologies can play an important role in certain sectors such as cement production, iron and steel, and others, but to say that carbon capture and storage technology will allow the oil and gas industry to continue current oil and gas production trends, while at the same time reducing emissions, is in our opinion pure fantasy.

The International Energy Agency said that limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees would require sequestering 32 billion metric tons (35 billion short tons) of carbon, which is absolutely unimaginable by 2050. It noted that the amount of electricity needed to power this process exceeds global demand. Current annual electricity charge.

Commenting on the IEA report, Kaisa Kosnin, policy coordinator at Greenpeace International, said: “Industry self-regulation leads to mass disaster, so the moment of truth will come at this year’s climate summit, when governments have the opportunity to agree to stop production.” Fossil fuels, fairly and quickly.