The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative announces further initiatives to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and support the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) has announced further initiatives to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and support the goals of the Paris Agreement.

A statement published on its website on Monday revealed that the organization has launched a new initiative to unlock large-scale investment in carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS). The OGCI’s CCUS KickStarter initiative is designed to help decarbonize multiple industrial hubs around the world, starting with hubs in the United States, the UK, Norway, the Netherlands and China.

The OGCI is also now working on a carbon intensity target to reduce the collective average carbon intensity of member companies’ aggregated upstream oil and gas operations by 2025. In addition, all OGIC member companies have pledged to support policies that attribute an explicit or implicit value to carbon.

“We are scaling up the speed, scale, and impact of our actions in support of the Paris Agreement,” the heads of the OGCI member companies said in a joint statement.

“Accelerating the energy transition requires sustainable, large-scale actions, different pathways and innovative technological solutions to keep global warming well below 2°C. We are committed to enhancing our efforts as a constructive partner with governments, civil society, business and other stakeholders working together to transition to a net zero economy,” the heads added.

The OGCI – whose members include BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total and Eni - describes itself as a voluntary CEO-led initiative taking practical actions on climate change. OGCI Climate Investments, OGCI’s $1 billion-plus fund, now has a total of 15 investments in its portfolio.

In September last year, the OGCI set its first collective methane target for member companies. Members are currently on track to meet the methane intensity target, having reduced collective methane intensity by nine percent in 2018.

According to the United Nations’ website, the Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C. The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016.

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