The world’s biggest oil and gas companies aren’t on a trajectory that’s aligned with the Paris Agreement’s goals to limit global warming, according to a think tank’s latest assessment.
The Carbon Tracker Initiative examined 25 of the world’s largest oil and gas firms, analyzing their exploration and production plans as well as emission reduction targets, investments and executive bonus policies. The resulting Paris alignment scorecard — released Wednesday — assigns a failing grade to every company, noting several are still eyeing increases in production and continue to sanction new oil and gas projects.
“We find that the industry at large is still lagging behind what’s required,” Maeve O’Connor, the report author and an oil and gas analyst with Carbon Tracker, said in an interview Tuesday.
The core aim of the Paris Agreement, which emerged from the COP21 climate summit, is to cap global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. The Carbon Tracker report said almost all of the 25 companies are targeting near-term production increases and new project developments that can take years to come online.
