24 September 2014
Oil and gas industry launch ‘immediate-impact’ plan to slash global warming emissions
Multinational oil and gas companies, major producing states, and over two dozen cities joined forces to slash methane emissions in a partnership that can have an immediate impact in reducing global warming as part of UN Secretary-General’s strategy to tackle climate change.
‘I am so glad to see concrete initiatives that will help reduce the release of short-lived climate pollutants into the atmosphere’, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said of the ‘Oil and Gas Methane Partnership’ launched on 23 September, the same day that he was hosting the largest-ever summit of world leaders on climate change. ‘These announcements show how Governments, corporations and civil society can work together to reduce emissions.’
Short-lived climate pollutants, including methane, black carbon (soot), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), are responsible for a substantial portion of the increase in global temperatures and efforts to reduce them can have immediate impact in slowing the rise in global temperatures expected over the next 35 years by as much as 0.6°C. Significant action is needed especially by the oil and gas sector which is responsible for more than 20 per cent of the world’s methane emissions, second only to the agriculture sector. Industry partners include ENI of Italy; Petróleos Mexicanos or Pemex; the US gas company Southwestern Energy; Norway’s Statoil Group; BG Group, the former British Gas, and Thailand’s oil and gas company, PTT. Governments which have signed on include those from major oil and gas producing countries, such as Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Russia and the United States.