Two years after 50 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies laid out a set of ambitious goals to reach net-zero emissions from their operations by 2050 at COP28, a new report released by the International Energy Agency found that many companies have yet to disclose emissions data showing progress.
While nearly 65 percent of the 116 companies studied in the Pledges to Progress 2025 report have pledged to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from their operations by 2050, only about 12 percent have published investment targets and timelines for reducing their own emissions. At the same time, about 36 percent received full credit from the report’s authors for reporting their operations’ greenhouse gas emissions.
“Companies scored much more highly for target setting than for disclosure on strategies for implementation and reporting,” the report’s authors wrote.
The relative lack of concrete timelines, investments and greenhouse gas reporting since the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC) was signed in 2023 mirrored a lack of urgency seen at COP30, which ended last week in Brazil. Delegates from the EU struggled to push for pollution-cutting targets this year without backing from the United States, which did not send a delegation after President Donald Trump told the U.N. General Assembly in September that global warming is a “con job.”
