Collective push required to meet decarbonisation charter goals, Cop28 President says

PetroChina has also become a signatory of the charter that calls for net zero emissions by 2050, Dr Sultan Al Jaber tells ministerial meeting in China

Dr Sultan Al Jaber has called upon all countries to submit Nationally Determined Contributions that cover everything from decarbonisation to deforestation. Photo: Cop28

Oil and gas industry stakeholders need to make a collective push towards the goals of the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter (OGDC), the landmark UAE Consensus that calls for net zero emissions by 2050, Cop28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber has said.

More than 50 oil and gas companies that helped in delivering the pledge to cut emissions will now have to come together for its implementation and advancing the sustainable socio-economic development agenda, Dr Al Jaber, who is also UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said on Monday at the eighth Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) in China.

The charter was launched by the Cop28 Presidency and Saudi Arabia at the UN climate summit in December in the UAE as part of efforts to decarbonise the oil and gas sector, which directly and indirectly accounts for 42 per cent of global emissions.

PetroChina, a unit of state-controlled China National Petroleum Corporation, joined the charter companies, 60 per cent of which are national oil companies, as one of the 53 signatories of the OGDC, Dr Al Jaber said.

PetroChina, which accounts for 3.5 per cent of the world's oil production, joining the charter, marks a “significant moment for Chinese leadership” and “sends a powerful signal to global companies yet to sign up to do the right thing and choose the right side of history”, Dr Al Jaber told ministers at the event in Wuhan, China.

Solidarity was the key to achieving the UAE Consensus and the stakeholders should now draw from its “spirit of solidarity” to speed up the implementation.

This approach to inclusivity helped in delivering the charter, which is now yielding real-world results and “facts on the ground”, Dr Al Jaber added.

The OGDC regional signatories include NOCs including the UAE's Adnoc, Bahrain's Bapco Energies and Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil-exporting company.

Italy's Eni, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell and TotalEnergies were among the international oil companies that signed the charter in December.

The OGDC calls for the industry to align around net zero by or before 2050, zero-out methane emissions by 2030, eliminate routine flaring by 2030, work towards industry best practices in emission reduction, and invest in the energy system of the future.

The Cop28 Presidency in December said it would mobilise $1 billion for methane abatement projects.

After carbon dioxide emissions, methane is the second largest contributor to climate change, caused by humans. It is a greenhouse gas that warms up quickly, more than 80 times faster than carbon dioxide.

Climate experts said that reducing the international output of methane emissions is the most effective and least disruptive way to slow down the increase in temperatures over the next few decades.

Dr Al Jaber also called upon all countries to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that “cover everything from decarbonisation to deforestation”.

“We are pushing every country to turn its NDC into a practical plan that transforms the UAE Consensus into facts on the ground. These plans should be comprehensive and balanced across mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation,” he said.

The Cop Presidencies Troika, uniting Cop28 with the Azerbaijan and Brazil Cop presidencies, has a critical role to play in maintaining “political momentum”, he added.

Every sector should make climate resilience “their guiding principle”, Dr Al Jaber said, urging industries to “adopt strategies that future-proof their business models, put people first and protect our planet”.

Dr Al Jaber who is also managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc, stressed the need for reform of the international financial framework, to make climate finance more available, accessible and affordable, and incentivise private-sector investment.

“At a time when many countries are grappling with limited fiscal policy options and increasing debt burdens, this will be no easy task,” he said.

“The trillions we need cannot come from governments alone. Yet, the private sector will not step in if the risks are too high.”

Investment vehicles as Alterra, the world’s largest private investment vehicle for climate change action, launched at Cop28 with a $30 billion commitment from the UAE, could help to “change the dynamic”, Dr Al Jaber added.