Exxon CEO, a Climate Villain to Many, Makes His Debut at COP
Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Sat, 2 December 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods cuts a strange figure at the COP28 climate summit — an oil executive moving among thousands of government officials, business leaders and activists gathered in Dubai to limit global temperature rise.
After all, he’s the head of the largest American oil and gas company — villainized by some environmentalists for decades denying the fossil fuel’s contribution to climate change.
But at this UN climate conference, hosted by the United Arab Emirates and led by another industry executive — the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. — Woods said he is finding open doors.
“The complexity of the challenge of transitioning the energy system is coming more into focus,” with “a much more diverse group of people recognizing this is a hard problem to solve” and “we need big companies to help with that,” Woods said in an interview at the UN conference.
There’s a greater recognition that the energy transition will require a breadth of technologies, including hydrogen production and carbon capture, Woods said. “That opens the door for us.”
Exxon’s balance sheet and technical know-how means the oil giant can contribute to the UN climate talks and a global energy transition that must involve a range of solutions, Woods said.
“We have to continue to meet the needs of society and reduce emissions — and frankly, we have the skills, the capabilities to actually do that, the balance sheet to actually fund it,” Woods said. “There’s an opportunity and a willingness now for people to engage in those discussions.”
Woods is the first Exxon chief executive to ever attend one of the UN Conference of Parties on climate change since the summits began in the early 1990s. But at this year’s meeting, he’s not alone. Other oil bosses, including Shell’s Wael Sawan, turned up to sign a pact among 50 oil companies to reduce emissions from their own operations.
Sultan Al Jaber, the president of COP28, has argued that even as the world develops more carbon-free power, oil and gas will remain part of the energy system for decades to come — and making them as clean as possible is essential to avert warming.
Many environmentalists strenuously disagree. Months before the conference opened, activists called for Al Jaber’s ouster as president and said having oil executives at the summit was tantamount to welcoming foxes inside the henhouse.
Days before the conference opened, there were reports Al Jaber sought to advance oil and gas deals during meetings with foreign governments ahead of COP28 based on leaked memos released by the British Broadcasting Corp. in collaboration with the Center for Climate Reporting. Al Jaber has denied the allegations.
Oil executives have no business at a climate conference, said Collin Rees, US program co-manager at Oil Change International.
“Treating them as legitimate partners in the energy transition is dangerous,” especially given the industry’s “long history of nothing but delay and doubling down on their core business model of expanding fossil fuels,” he said. Even so, their presence is “a sign of how the conversation has progressed,” and “now they are being forced to defend themselves in public.”
For Exxon, joining the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter is consistent with work the company is already doing to pare methane emissions, Woods said. But the venture — which brings in 29 national oil companies — is seen as important to driving broad progress, even among firms that don’t face the same regulatory and investor pressure to clean up.
“It’s important that we get as much of the industry committed to raising the bar,” Woods said.
Exxon is pursuing an array of ventures that stand to benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping climate law enacted in the US last year, including a Gulf Coast hydrogen-production project that has secured as much as $1.2 billion in government support.
And though President Joe Biden has had sharp words for oil producers, Woods said he sees signs of a balanced approach. “There’s a genuine effort by the Biden administration to strike the right balance, to focus and drive emission reductions and improve greenhouse gas emissions, but, at the same time, a recognition of the important role oil and gas plays.”
Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Sat, 2 December 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods cuts a strange figure at the COP28 climate summit — an oil executive moving among thousands of government officials, business leaders and activists gathered in Dubai to limit global temperature rise.
After all, he’s the head of the largest American oil and gas company — villainized by some environmentalists for decades denying the fossil fuel’s contribution to climate change.
But at this UN climate conference, hosted by the United Arab Emirates and led by another industry executive — the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. — Woods said he is finding open doors.
“The complexity of the challenge of transitioning the energy system is coming more into focus,” with “a much more diverse group of people recognizing this is a hard problem to solve” and “we need big companies to help with that,” Woods said in an interview at the UN conference.
There’s a greater recognition that the energy transition will require a breadth of technologies, including hydrogen production and carbon capture, Woods said. “That opens the door for us.”
Exxon’s balance sheet and technical know-how means the oil giant can contribute to the UN climate talks and a global energy transition that must involve a range of solutions, Woods said.
“We have to continue to meet the needs of society and reduce emissions — and frankly, we have the skills, the capabilities to actually do that, the balance sheet to actually fund it,” Woods said. “There’s an opportunity and a willingness now for people to engage in those discussions.”
Woods is the first Exxon chief executive to ever attend one of the UN Conference of Parties on climate change since the summits began in the early 1990s. But at this year’s meeting, he’s not alone. Other oil bosses, including Shell’s Wael Sawan, turned up to sign a pact among 50 oil companies to reduce emissions from their own operations.
Sultan Al Jaber, the president of COP28, has argued that even as the world develops more carbon-free power, oil and gas will remain part of the energy system for decades to come — and making them as clean as possible is essential to avert warming.
Many environmentalists strenuously disagree. Months before the conference opened, activists called for Al Jaber’s ouster as president and said having oil executives at the summit was tantamount to welcoming foxes inside the henhouse.
Days before the conference opened, there were reports Al Jaber sought to advance oil and gas deals during meetings with foreign governments ahead of COP28 based on leaked memos released by the British Broadcasting Corp. in collaboration with the Center for Climate Reporting. Al Jaber has denied the allegations.
Oil executives have no business at a climate conference, said Collin Rees, US program co-manager at Oil Change International.
“Treating them as legitimate partners in the energy transition is dangerous,” especially given the industry’s “long history of nothing but delay and doubling down on their core business model of expanding fossil fuels,” he said. Even so, their presence is “a sign of how the conversation has progressed,” and “now they are being forced to defend themselves in public.”
For Exxon, joining the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter is consistent with work the company is already doing to pare methane emissions, Woods said. But the venture — which brings in 29 national oil companies — is seen as important to driving broad progress, even among firms that don’t face the same regulatory and investor pressure to clean up.
“It’s important that we get as much of the industry committed to raising the bar,” Woods said.
Exxon is pursuing an array of ventures that stand to benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping climate law enacted in the US last year, including a Gulf Coast hydrogen-production project that has secured as much as $1.2 billion in government support.
And though President Joe Biden has had sharp words for oil producers, Woods said he sees signs of a balanced approach. “There’s a genuine effort by the Biden administration to strike the right balance, to focus and drive emission reductions and improve greenhouse gas emissions, but, at the same time, a recognition of the important role oil and gas plays.”
Mathilde DUMAZET
AFP
Sat, 2 December 2023
Spectacular: the UN COP28 summit in Dubai is being held on the old Expo 2020 site (KARIM SAHIB)
They call the giant climate business expo running outside the COP28 United Nations talks in Dubai the "green zone".
With the enormous former Expo 2020 site given over to green -- and not so green -- companies to trumpet their climate credentials, the private sector has never been embraced so warmly at a climate summit as it has been in the oil-rich city state.
An astonishing 400,000 visitors have registered for day passes to the futuristic jamboree, with stands touting the latest carbon capture tech to a vegetable garden trying to hold up under the desert heat.
And that is not counting the 80,000 people accredited to the talks themselves.
Corporate pledges have been coming thick and fast, with Dubai-based Emirate Airlines -- which has its own huge pavilion -- heralding its first flight with "100 percent sustainable aviation fuel" and BNP Paribas bank saying they were phasing out financing projects related to extracting coking coal.
Others have been more hazy. The public relations teams of big companies feel they have to "come up with something during COP", sustainable finance expert Laurent Lascols told AFP. But most of the time they recycle "something they already have on the go".
But Sanda Ojiambo, assistant secretary-general of UN Global Compact, which tries to spur corporations towards sustainable development, praised the "very active and dynamic business movement that happens at COP.
"As long as it's credible and tangible and transparent, I think it really continues to demonstrate forward-looking discussion," she added.
But only 18 percent of big firms worldwide are cutting emissions "fast enough to reach net zero by 2050", according to a report last month by consultants Accenture.
Another by the Boston Consulting Group found that just 14 percent had reduced their carbon emissions in line with their own ambitions in the past five years -- and only one in 10 measured them precisely.
While COP28's Emirati president Sultan Al Jaber could not be more business friendly, experts say lingering suspicions of conflicts of interest -- Jaber is also CEO of the UAE's national oil and gas company -- put corporations in a complicated position.
- Big business commitments -
It is not as easy to make big announcements in Dubai "where you might be in the firing line" compared with the COP26 in Glasgow, said Lascols, because the UK was "more a model pupil in terms of energy transition".
"We did ask ourselves the question" whether we should go to Dubai, admitted the representative of a large French group, before deciding to press ahead "because it is important to take every chance to help move the lines". Other companies questioned by AFP took a similar stance.
But corporations are also at COP28 to influence as well as sell, with a huge number of lobbyists present.
And not all of them are trying to help wriggle out of responsibility for the climate.
More than 200 major corporations including the likes of Ikea, Coca-Cola, Sony, DHL, Heineken and Nestle have recently called on national leaders to set a timeline for phasing out unabated fossil fuels –- without the use of controversial carbon capture and storage technologies.
Many of them are also urging their energy suppliers to do the same and decarbonise their businesses.
Maria Mendiluce, head of We Mean Business, which coordinated the appeal, said we need to back companies trying to do the right thing. "We tend to focus on criticising those who are doing something... (but) we need to highlight those that are not doing anything."
mdz-bp/ico/er/lap/fg/giv
Sat, 2 December 2023
Spectacular: the UN COP28 summit in Dubai is being held on the old Expo 2020 site (KARIM SAHIB)
They call the giant climate business expo running outside the COP28 United Nations talks in Dubai the "green zone".
With the enormous former Expo 2020 site given over to green -- and not so green -- companies to trumpet their climate credentials, the private sector has never been embraced so warmly at a climate summit as it has been in the oil-rich city state.
An astonishing 400,000 visitors have registered for day passes to the futuristic jamboree, with stands touting the latest carbon capture tech to a vegetable garden trying to hold up under the desert heat.
And that is not counting the 80,000 people accredited to the talks themselves.
Corporate pledges have been coming thick and fast, with Dubai-based Emirate Airlines -- which has its own huge pavilion -- heralding its first flight with "100 percent sustainable aviation fuel" and BNP Paribas bank saying they were phasing out financing projects related to extracting coking coal.
Others have been more hazy. The public relations teams of big companies feel they have to "come up with something during COP", sustainable finance expert Laurent Lascols told AFP. But most of the time they recycle "something they already have on the go".
But Sanda Ojiambo, assistant secretary-general of UN Global Compact, which tries to spur corporations towards sustainable development, praised the "very active and dynamic business movement that happens at COP.
"As long as it's credible and tangible and transparent, I think it really continues to demonstrate forward-looking discussion," she added.
But only 18 percent of big firms worldwide are cutting emissions "fast enough to reach net zero by 2050", according to a report last month by consultants Accenture.
Another by the Boston Consulting Group found that just 14 percent had reduced their carbon emissions in line with their own ambitions in the past five years -- and only one in 10 measured them precisely.
While COP28's Emirati president Sultan Al Jaber could not be more business friendly, experts say lingering suspicions of conflicts of interest -- Jaber is also CEO of the UAE's national oil and gas company -- put corporations in a complicated position.
- Big business commitments -
It is not as easy to make big announcements in Dubai "where you might be in the firing line" compared with the COP26 in Glasgow, said Lascols, because the UK was "more a model pupil in terms of energy transition".
"We did ask ourselves the question" whether we should go to Dubai, admitted the representative of a large French group, before deciding to press ahead "because it is important to take every chance to help move the lines". Other companies questioned by AFP took a similar stance.
But corporations are also at COP28 to influence as well as sell, with a huge number of lobbyists present.
And not all of them are trying to help wriggle out of responsibility for the climate.
More than 200 major corporations including the likes of Ikea, Coca-Cola, Sony, DHL, Heineken and Nestle have recently called on national leaders to set a timeline for phasing out unabated fossil fuels –- without the use of controversial carbon capture and storage technologies.
Many of them are also urging their energy suppliers to do the same and decarbonise their businesses.
Maria Mendiluce, head of We Mean Business, which coordinated the appeal, said we need to back companies trying to do the right thing. "We tend to focus on criticising those who are doing something... (but) we need to highlight those that are not doing anything."
mdz-bp/ico/er/lap/fg/giv
No comments:
Post a Comment