COP28 in Dubai will be a "moment of truth" for the oil industry - Head of the International Energy Agency
Kyiv • UNN
The IEA's Fatih Birol has warned that the upcoming COP28 conference in Dubai is crucial for the oil industry, emphasizing the need to reduce oil and gas dependence for a successful transition to clean energy and highlighting the inefficiency of carbon capture technology.
A week before the the start of the UN Climate Summit (COP28) in the UAE, discussions continue about the need to to reduce oil and gas operations in order to successfully transition to clean energy. energy. In particular, carbon capture technology is criticized by experts as inefficient - but it is still relied upon by fossil fuel producers. As stated by head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol told the BBC, the upcoming COP28 will reveal inconvenient truths about about contributing to or overcoming the climate crisis, UNN reports.
The uncomfortable truth that the industry must come to terms with is that a successful clean energy transition requires much less demand for oil and gas, which means shrinking oil and gas operations over time, not expanding them. There is no way around it
According to him, the global oil and gas industry is facing a choice - either to contribute to the climate crisis, or "become part of the solution."
Details
This year's COP28 conference, which is to be held in COP28 conference, to be held in the United Arab Emirates, is causing controversy due to the fact that it is being hosted by a major oil producer, the BBC reports. In particular, the person who will preside over the Sultan Al Jaber of the United Arab Emirates, the man who will chair the climate talks, has previously been criticized for prioritizing a technology known as carbon capture and storage. This technology is quite expensive, but supposedly prevents the release of most of the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels in as a result of burning fossil fuels in power plants; or reuse it and store it underground. reuses it and stores it underground. Critics believe that fossil fuel producers hope to use fossil fuel producers hope to use carbon capture and storage to continue to rely on oil and gas.
It is important to note that according to expert estimates, based on current oil and and gas consumption, the world will have to capture or remove about 32 billion tons of carbon of carbon to stop the temperature from rising by more than 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels, which is considered a key threshold for limiting the impact of of climate change.
Currently, only 45 million tons of carbon are captured globally each year. But Fatih Birol argues that achieving global climate goals "means abandoning the illusion that the solution is incredibly large amounts of carbon capture". carbon capture". Among other things, it is noted that the amount of electricity required to power carbon capture technologies will be greater than the entire global demand for electricity.
Also, Oxford Net CEO Steve Smith, Executive Director of Oxford Net Zero and CO2RE at the University of Oxford, tells the BBC about this dilemma. University, Steve Smith.
It goes hand in hand with reducing emissions, trying to remove carbon dioxide without reducing emissions is like being in a car at speed and trying to press the brakes and the gas at the same time
A recent report by the IEA emphasizes that, despite the statements of oil and gas companies, the actual level of investment in the transition to zero emissions is negligible, according to Brendan Curran, Senior Research Fellow at the Grant Thornton Institute for at the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. According to him, the industry is actually "not not really "doing anywhere near enough", while "oil and gas companies have been recording record profits."
In 2022 the fossil fuel industry reported revenues of $5 trillion US dollars, a record high.
But, according to Fatih Birol, any new fossil fuel projects announced today will face "not only climate risks, but also business risks", so business risks", because by the time oil comes to market in seven or eight years seven or eight years from now, global oil consumption will be declining.
SEE ALSO: Russian oil tankers are not subject to EU sanctions - diplomats
