OGCI Chairman Bob Dudley On What Post-Pandemic Recovery of Energy Demand Means for Reducing Global Emissions; Investing in New Technologies and Why a Value on Carbon is Needed - Seite 2

“About eight percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions actually comes from cement when it’s cured. So, we’ve invested in a company that actually cures the cement with CO2 and it brings the CO2 into the cement and then sequesters it. Technologies like that are the kind that are going to make a huge difference. They need to spread with scale.”

On initiatives and investments of OGCI companies to reduce methane emissions:

“You almost can’t get to the aims of the Paris Accords without the use of methane to displace coal out of the power system. CCS is another big area as well. You can’t get to those goals without both of those. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. It doesn’t last in the atmosphere nearly as long as CO² and the technologies haven’t been there to be able to monitor it and mitigate it.

“What OGCI has focused on a lot is measuring our own emissions as the 12 companies collectively. We set a baseline in 2017 and we’re now targeting by 2024 to get down to 1/3 less than we’ve emitted before, which is about the equivalent of 3.4 million passenger cars on the road.

“Unlike in the past, you can’t see methane—natural gas—but there’s going to be nowhere to hide because the technologies are coming so fast that we’ll be able to spot them, mitigate any leaks and hopefully spread that technology not only in the oil and gas industry—our own companies—but the rest of the industry and other hard-to-abate sectors as well.”

On energy demand post-pandemic and the collective action needed across industry to meet global climate targets:

“There’s a clue in how hard it is to reduce emissions. Because even with that great reduction in economic activity in 2020, emissions maybe didn’t fall as far as some people were thinking. It shows you the size and the scale and the complexity of the challenge. Demand is coming back. In order to solve these problems, no one company, no one real industry [can do it alone]. We’ve all got to work together. Collaboration is key.

“That was hard to do in 2020. OGCI kept together through the virtual world and kept spending and investing money. All the CEOs remained committed to it. Emissions are coming back up. You can’t just do it on supply, we’ve got to reduce demand as well across all kinds of sectors to happen. It just means to me now more than any time, we’ve got to drive things collectively, collaborate together. And not just the OGCI companies, but with governments, NGOs, policymakers, [and] stakeholders. We’ve got to work together and not just talk.