Global climate change caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases of anthropogenic origin in the atmosphere is actually one of the most acute problems.
At the same time, oil and gas industry is one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide.
These differences are accounted for by the global warming potential of each gas, resulting in a carbon footprint in units of mass of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e).
The oil and gas industry is striving to minimize its own emissions as well as those from the entire life cycle of its products.
Typically, these fall into the following types of categories:
- Eliminate methane leaks, flaring and venting
- Scale up carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) development and deployment
- Switch fuel and improve energy efficiency of operations
- Utilize lower-carbon feedstocks to offer low-carbon products
- Collaborate across the supply chain
- Build capacities to measure emissions granularly
Globally, the average carbon footprint is closer to 4 tons.
To have the best chance of avoiding a 2℃ rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop to under 2 tons by 2050.
