Reliance joins Oil and Gas Climate Initiative to support effective climate change at COP21
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) said here yesterday that it had become the only Indian energy company to join an initiative that declares its support for an effective climate change at the 21st session of the United Nations Conference of Parties to the UN Framework on Climate Change (COP21).
This initiative is backed by ten of the world’s largest oil and gas companies through the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI).
The CEOs of these companies, which together supply nearly 10% of the world’s energy, confirmed that they recognised the general ambition to limit global average temperature rise to 2° Celsius, and that the existing trend of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions was not aligned with the target.
In a press release, the CEOs declared their collective support for an effective climate change agreement to be reached at next month’s 21st session of the United Nations (UN) Conference of Parties to the UN Framework on Climate Change (COP21).
In their milestone declaration, the CEOs of the companies that currently make up the OGCI – BG Group, BP, Eni, Pemex, Reliance Industries, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Statoil and Total – said their member-companies had taken significant actions to reduce their GHG footprint, with combined GHG emissions from their operations reducing by around 20% over the past 10 years.
In their declaration the 10 CEOs said: “Our shared ambition is for a 2°C future. It is a challenge for the whole of society. We are committed to playing our part. Over the coming years we will collectively strengthen our actions and investments to contribute to reducing the GHG intensity of the global energy mix. Our companies will collaborate in a number of areas, with the aim of going beyond the sum of our individual efforts.”
Apart from Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of RIL, the signatories to the declaration included Helge Lund, BG Group; Bob Dudley, BP; Claudio Descalzi, Eni; Emilio Lozoya, Pemex; Josu Jon Imaz, Repsol; Ben van Beurden, Royal Dutch Shell; Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco; Eldar Sætre, Statoil; and Patrick Pouyanné, Total.
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The OGCI also yesterday launched its collaborative report – ‘More energy, lower emissions’ – highlighting practical actions taken by member companies to improve GHG emissions management and work towards improving climate change impacts in the longer term. These actions include significant investments in natural gas, carbon capture and storage, and renewable energy, as well as low-GHG research and development.
Together the declaration and report set out key areas where the OGCI companies will focus their collaboration, including:
• Efficiency: optimising efficiency of their own operations; improving the end-use efficiency of their fuels and other products; and working with manufacturers and consumers to improve the efficiency of road vehicles.
• Natural gas: contributing to increasing the share of gas in the global energy mix, ensuring it results in significantly lower lifecycle emissions than other fossil fuels for power generation; eliminating ‘routine’ flaring and reducing methane emissions from their operations.
• Long-term solutions: investing in R&D and innovation to reduce GHG emissions; participating in partnerships to progress carbon capture and storage; contributing to increasing the share of renewables in the global energy mix.
• Energy access: developing projects to provide people with access to energy in partnership with local and national authorities and other stakeholders.
• Partnerships and multi-stakeholder initiatives: seeking opportunities to accelerate climate change solutions by working collectively or individually in industry and other initiatives.
The OGCI is a CEO-led, voluntary, oil and gas industry initiative that aims to catalyze practical action on climate change through best practice sharing and collaboration.
The OGCI was established following discussions held during the January 2014 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting and was officially launched at the September 2014 UN Climate Summit.
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