Al-Jaber, who is the head of the giant UAE oil company, ADNOC, urged the oil and gas sector to “strengthen its efforts, accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions resulting from its operations, and take collective measures to reduce operational emissions.”
Operational emissions represent between 15 and 20% of the carbon footprint of the companies concerned. These are known as “Scope 1 and 2” emissions and do not include gases from consumption by end customers such as the transport sector and factories, fuel and gas.
Al-Jaber, whose appointment as president of the United Nations Climate Conference to be held in Dubai at the end of this year, drew criticism from environmental activists and Western officials, stressed that “the efforts of the entire oil and gas sector, including international and national oil companies, must be unified to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.” .
Most of the international energy companies such as Shell, BP and Total Energy have already set their own emissions reduction targets, knowing that they represent only 15% of global oil and gas production. On the other hand, state energy companies, which are mainly owned by Gulf states, China and Iran, have not set their own climate targets and they represent at least half of the world’s oil and gas production.
Al-Jaber also urged oil producers to “accelerate industry-wide commitment to halting methane emissions by 2030.”
Methane is among the most harmful greenhouse gases and is emitted in large quantities from gas fields and pipelines.
“If we do that, it will reduce the first and second range emissions by a huge amount,” he added.
Al-Jaber repeated his warning that “energy demand will continue to rise, because half a billion more people will join our planet.”
He believed that “the decisive challenge in this century is to reduce emissions as much as possible, while achieving sustainable economic growth.”
He stressed that “government policies should contribute to stimulating the use of clean energy…reducing the cost of carbon capture and increasing its efficiency, and supporting research and development activities to improve energy storage systems using batteries, energy efficiency, and other new technologies.”
For years, oil producers have promoted carbon capture as a solution to global warming. But climate experts criticize the technology as a distraction from the primary goal of reducing emissions from fossil fuels.
© 2023 AFP
2023-07-06 14:28:07
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