Nigerian oil and gas firms, including leading international oil companies, have been ranked low in turning in cutting down on hydrocarbons ahead of the goals of the 2015 Paris climate deal, multinational non-profit platform CDP has said.
As reported by Reuters, Nigeria, Russia, the Arab Gulf, Algeria, Libya, Venezuela, Iraq and Iran are in the “lower ranks” of meeting their pledge to the zero gas emission target.
The CDP’s Oil and Gas Benchmark report, published together with the World Benchmarking Alliance, said its latest assessment had shown the oil and gas sector “has made almost no progress towards the Paris Agreement goals since 2021”.
According to report, none of the 100 oil and gas companies it assessed is set to cut its overall emissions “at a rate sufficient to align with a 1.5°C pathway over the next five years,”
Former President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2021, pledged to attain net zero by 2060- ten years behind the United States target of 2050. The country has since stated that it was adopting gas as its transitional fuel.
The report also listed top oil and gas companies- TotalEnergies, Eni, Repsol, Shell, BP, Chevron, Conoco and Exxon as part of offenders.
“TotalEnergies which sees no big cut to its emissions by 2030, Eni and Repsol are in the top 10, and Shell and BP in the top 20. Big U.S. producers Chevron, Conoco and Exxon are in the top 40,” the report said.
Scientists say that by 2030 the world needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions by around 43 per cent from 2019 levels to stand any chance of meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
CDP has emerged as the world’s biggest repository of environmental data submitted on a voluntary basis by companies, which are under pressure from some shareholders to disclose how they plan to navigate the transition to a lower-carbon future.
The CDP said 81 oil and gas companies with extraction activities show “no significant reduction” in production before 2030, with production not expected to peak until 2028.
The world’s biggest Western oil and gas companies have set varying targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and the combustion of the products they sell, with the latter, known as Scope 3, accounting for the lion’s share.
Less than a third of companies in the report had any Scope 3 targets.
Only three European companies assessed – Neste, Naturgy and Engie – are investing more than 50 per cent of their budget in low-carbon technologies, according to the report.
Shell had earlier this month announced plans to increase its hydrocarbon explosion starting this year due to investors’ complaints of lower dividends and profit.