Aramco joins Exxon, BP, Shell in starting to curb own emissions

Aramco joins Exxon, BP, Shell in starting to curb own emissions

The European Union is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050

Saudi Aramco has joined with European and US supermajors representing a third of the world's oil industry to begin curbing emissions at their own operations as the clamour builds for the biggest polluters to act on climate impact.

Members of the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative, a group of big oil companies working on ways to respond to climate change, pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of their operations to between 20 and 21 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel of crude equivalent by 2025.

That represents a reduction of as much as 13 per cent from 2017 levels.

The target only refers to "intensity,“ meaning it allows producers to increase their overall emissions, but they'll have to be cleaner on a per-barrel basis.

It also doesn't include customer emissions, referred to by carbon accountants as "Scope 3,“ which typically add up to more than 90 per cent of an oil company's total footprint.

But the target is higher than the 18 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel averaged by members of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, which represents about 40 per cent of the industry.

Bob Dudley, the former BP CEO and