Middle East transparency on carbon emissions lags behind rest of world

Despite accounting for around 30% of global oil production, Middle Eastern countries trail the rest of the world when it comes to publicly disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report by financial rating agency Standard & Poor's.

Regional economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuel revenues and unlike other parts of the world including Europe and the United States, many of the large oil and gas companies are state owned.

The report, published jointly on Wednesday with the Dubai Financial Market stock exchange, showed that companies in the Middle East are doing more to disclose their emissions, but they still lag behind the rest of the world. In 2021, only 27% of Middle Eastern companies disclosed their scope 1 emissions (those arising from operations such as refining) and 26% disclosing their scope 2 emissions (those from powering operations, such as using coal to power an oil refinery). Globally that year, 46% of companies disclosed their scope 1 emissions, while 45% shared their scope 2 emissions.

Although the rating agency said that disclosure rates will rise as climate reporting becomes mandatory in more jurisdictions, it pointed out that emissions levels were still rising in the region. Greenhouse gas emissions totaled 1.1 billion metric tons for the 632 Middle East-headquartered companies involved in the analysis, S&P said. That figure was 370 million metric tons five years earlier.