International oil and gas companies are talking more about the significance of climate change in their corporate strategy, and the European majors are leading the way, analytics company GlobalData said Wednesday.

According to upstream analyst Daniel Rogers, the number of times supermajors mention the climate change theme in their corporate earnings and fillings rose over 150% from 2016 to 2019.

“The ever increasing relevance of environmental sustainability has led to long-term corporate commitments linking to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and lower carbon footprints,” he said in a statement sent to Kallanish Energy.

European companies are on the lead in the so-called net-zero pathway – when carbon neutrality is achieved by balancing emissions with carbon removal or simply eliminating carbon emissions altogether.

“Of the supermajors studied, Europeans stood out as the top performers of the group with Royal Dutch Shell observing the largest reduction in flaring volumes and improved greenhouse gas intensity over the timeframe,” Rogers noted. “BP proved to be the most efficient supermajor with the lowest emissions intensity and continued year on year improvements since 2015,” he said, without disclosing the full list of majors studied.

The analyst also highlighted Equinor’s position as a leader in offshore field electrification, weaning operations off conventional gas turbine power generators; and Chevron’s successful start-up of the largest commercial-scale CO2 injection facility, at the Gorgon project, in Australia.