50 oil companies pledge to speed up climate action

REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

Cop28 president Sultan Al Jaber has launched the oil and gas decarbonisation charter (OGDC), a global industry initiative designed to speed up climate action across the oil and gas sectors.

To date, 50 companies, representing more than 40 percent of global oil production, have signed the OGDC, with national oil companies (NOCs) representing over 60 percent of signatories. This is the largest-ever number of NOCs to commit to a decarbonisation initiative.

“The launch of the OGDC is a great first step. While 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 1.5C within reach and set even stronger ambitions for decarbonisation,” Al Jaber said.

The signatories have committed to net-zero operations by 2050 at the latest, ending routine flaring by 2030 and near-zero upstream methane emissions.

Accelerator initiative

In addition, Al Jaber unveiled the global decarbonisation accelerator (GDA), which plans to speed up the energy transition, reduce global emissions and target methane and other non-Co2 greenhouse gases (GHGs).

The GDA is made up of key stakeholders, including international organisations, governments and policymakers, NGOs, and CEOs from every industrial sector.

“The world does not work without energy. Yet the world will break down if we do not fix energies we use today, mitigate their emissions at a gigaton scale, and rapidly transition to zero carbon alternatives,” Al Jaber said.

It was also announced at Cop28 that a total of 116 countries have signed the global renewables and energy efficiency pledge, agreeing to triple worldwide installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 gigawatts and to double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements from around 2 percent to more than 4 percent every year until 2030.

Cop28 UAE is taking place at Expo City Dubai from November 30-December 12, 2023.