An important OPEC meeting will be held today. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced in a press release on Friday, September 3th that it is holding the “First Ministerial Roundtable on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development” on Monday, 6 September 2021.
The roundtable aims to start a discussion about the challenges and opportunities arising from implementing collective climate mitigation actions for oil-producing countries. Apart from climate change, the meeting will also address another pressing issue – the Covid-19 pandemic.
“OPEC has been a strong advocate of international cooperation to address global challenges for over six decades. This deep-rooted tradition is an expression of our faith in the multilateral system as the indispensable forum for surmounting global problems…The Charter of Cooperation is a unique framework to confront longer-term issues of our industry and contribute to the global conversation on climate change,” according to the Secretary-General.
As the climate change conversation is predominant in the world right now, OPEC is one of the organizations most affected by any upcoming changes and consequences of the future transition.
The roundtable’s goal is also to reach a common understanding of ways to contribute to the global effort to reduce emissions. It will help members exchange information on appropriate solutions and innovative mitigation techniques for climate change mitigation.
Some of the means for tackling global warming that will be looked into are carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, energy poverty, the circular carbon economy, the “Saudi Green Initiative” and the “Middle East Green Initiative” introduced by Saudi Arabia in 2016. Both initiatives plan to advance climate change solutions as a catalyst for driving actions on addressing rising emissions.
The OPEC meeting is showing one of the most influential organizations in the world is starting to take the climate change topic seriously and could foster further actions on adapting to the new reality.
