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The COP28 Presidency and Saudi Arabia launched the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter (OGDC) at the UN climate summit, a global industry charter that pushes for net zero targets by 2050, zero-out methane emissions and eliminate routine flaring by 2030.
Fifty companies, including ADNOC, Saudi Aramco, BP, ONGC, among others have signed the charter, representing more than 40% of global oil production entities, with National Oil Companies representing over 60% of signatories.
“The launch of the OGDC is a great first step — and whilst 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,” Dr. Sultan Al Jaber said in a statement.
Signatories have also committed to near-zero upstream methane emissions, while agreeing to continue to work towards industry best practices in emission reductions and a number of key actions, including: investing in the energy system of the future including renewables, low-carbon fuels and negative emissions technologies; increasing transparency; increasing alignment with broader industry; reducing energy poverty.
The OGDC is a key initiative under the Global Decarbonisation Accelerator (GDA), which was launched at the World Climate Action Summit today. The GDA is focused on three key pillars: rapidly scaling the energy system of tomorrow; decarbonising the energy system of today; and targeting methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases.
Al Jaber has been an advocate for the inclusion of fossil fuels as an “unconventional” approach to combat climate change, which he also mentioned during his address on day one of the climate summit.
“We must look for ways to ensure the inclusion of the role of fossil fuel. I know there are strong ideas on including fossil fuels and renewables on the negotiation text, [but] to go the unconventional way. We have to be flexible and find a common ground and achieve consensus,” he said.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
