Are Gulf oil giants ready to go green?
As European and American oil companies face increased pressure and scrutiny on new climate restrictions, the Gulf has so far been avoided the heat.
ExxonMobil appointed a climate-minded activist investor to its board of directors after investment firm Engine No. 1 called on the American oil and gas giant to overhaul its board with expertise on climate change to drive its industrial transformation. The current business model is exposed to “immense risk” in the global realignment toward cleaner energies, Engine No. 1 said. In Europe, British oil and gas firm BP aims to become an “integrated energy company” and pledged to reduce its oil and gas production by over 40% by 2030.
There has been no such comparable trend in the Gulf. Saudi Aramco, the region’s largest state-owned oil company, did not include emissions from many refineries and petrochemical plants in its self-reported carbon footprint, misleading investors’ climate risk assessments. Aramco is “one of the few large, listed oil companies” that does not disclose Scope 3 emissions — produced when customers use its fuels — which typically account for “more than 80%” of oil companies’ total emissions," Bloomberg reported. The emission rates make Aramco a world leader in carbon emissions.
