Оil and gas companies, both national and international, should set targets for reducing their carbon emissions by 2030 at the upcoming COP28 global climate conference, Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of French industry major TotalEnergies (EPA: TTE), was quoted as saying this week at the OPEC Seminar conference.
“If we can bring something to COP28 as an oil and gas industry … (it) is not only IOCs (international oil companies) but also NOCs (national oil companies) should have some targets,” Pouyanne told participants at 8th International Seminar of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Wednesday, Reuters reported citing extracts shared by an unnamed source at the event.
The executive said that by the end of the decade there should be reduction targets for both emissions from methane, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that leaks from oil and gas infrastructure, and for Scope 1 and 2 emissions, that is pollution from the companies’ own operations.
This would, in his words, “demonstrate to the world that this industry is able to lower emissions.”
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However, the vast majority of emissions in the oil and gas sector are the so-called Scope 3 emissions, resulting from the burning and consumption of fuels, while emissions from extraction and production normally account for just 15% of players’ overall carbon footprint, Reuters highlighted.
The next Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), known as COP28, will be held on November 30 through December 12 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which itself is a major oil and gas producer.
Unlike TotalEnergies and other European industry majors, which already have targets in place for the reduction of both Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, their U.S. peers have only set targets to curb emissions from their own operations.
According to scientists, GHG emissions need to be cut by around 43% by 2030 versus 2019 levels if the world is to stand a chance of meeting the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) as per the 2015 Paris Agreement.
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