LONDON, 4th November, 2016 (WAM) — Ten of the world’s biggest oil companies plan to invest an average of $100 million annually over the next 10 years in low-carbon technologies, the companies said Friday.
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which also includes Saudi Aramco, Total , BP , Eni , Repsol , Statoil , CNPC, Pemex [PEMX.UL] and Reliance Industries , launched the Climate Investments fund which will invest in technologies to reduce carbon emissions but which will also help an increase gas use.
The companies pledged to use a large share of the $1 billion for speeding up carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) in gas-fired power plants and toward reducing leakages of methane, one of the most polluting greenhouse gases.
The 10 companies that comprise the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) produce 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas.
The oil and gas sector, which is directly responsible for 5 percent of manmade greenhouse emissions and the use of its products for another 32 percent, is under growing pressure from investors and the general public to help fight climate change, according to Reuters.
“If we can reduce and build the technologies to monitor and reduce fugitive methane emissions that’s like an essential license for us to be able to advocate natural gas,” BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The group will also invest in improving efficiency in transport and energy-intensive industries.
The announcement coincides with the official coming into force of the 2015 Paris Agreement, intended to wean the world economy off coal, oil and gas in the second half of this century in order to slash carbon emissions.
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