The Cop28 presidency has teamed up with the fossil fuel industry on an initiative to reduce the emissions from producing – but not using – oil and gas.
If you’re getting deja vu, that’s because there’s been an alphabet soup of similar initiatives recently. The NZPF, the OGCI, the EIERGHGFF…you get the picture!They all get the same criticism. Why focus on the relatively small chunk of oil and gas emissions which come from producing the stuff and not the much larger emissions from burning it?But satellites recently revealed that leaks from Turkmenistan’s oil and gas infrastructure last year did more damage to the climate than the whole of the UK does. Given that even under the IEA’s 1.5-aligned scenario we’ll be using oil and gas for at least 30 years, it would be good to plug these leaks at least. But will these initiatives help with that? Or are they just a public relations stunt, so oil and gas companies can say they’re doing something while pumping more oil?The Paris Agreement is famously voluntary, relying on peer pressure and encouragement rather than rules and discipline. But it does have some legally-binding aspects. And now the closest thing it has to a police force has been set up to enforce them. It’s begun its work with a reprimand to one of the world’s tiniest and holiest nations, who have failed to submit a climate plan to the UN. That situation should be fixed easily. But the committee is likely to take on bigger nations and tougher cases soon.
