No major oil and gas company has an emissions target that is aligned with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, according to a new report from Carbon Tracker.
The think tank’s Absolute Impact 2024 found that methane emissions are a major “blind spot” for the world’s top 30 oil and gas producers.
“Reducing a ton of methane will do a lot more to reduce warming as compared to reducing the same volume of carbon dioxide,” said Olivia Bisel, the lead author of the report. “It’s also low-hanging fruit, so there are technologically and commercially feasible ways to reduce methane that companies can implement starting today.”
Many oil and gas companies aim to achieve near-zero methane emissions in fossil fuel production and other upstream activities by 2030, but none globally have reduction targets for all their business activities. Most firms — with the sole exception of Chevron — don’t include methane emissions from joint ventures in their targets.
