International Energy Forum commends producers for forming Net Zero Club
The International Energy Forum (IEF) has commended five of its member countries for forming the Net Zero Producers’ Forum to develop pragmatic net-zero emission strategies.
Canada, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced their intention to form a forum to develop strategies including methane abatement, circular carbon systems, carbon capture and storage and economic diversification. They are all members of the IEF and collectively represent 40 percent of global oil and gas production.
“Energy producers are faced with unique responsibilities to furnish the world with the energy it needs to operate but the climate crisis requires serious leadership and a strong alliance to deliver a path to net zero,” said Joseph McMonigle, Secretary General of the IEF.
“The International Energy Forum looks forward to helping advance this important initiative in any way we can,” he added.
The IEF is the world’s largest energy organization whose members account for 90 percent of world energy. Founded 30 years ago to promote dialogue between energy producers and consumers of OPEC and IEA, the IEF today has more members than both groups combined, including many unaligned countries like Argentina, India, South Africa, China and Russia. The IEF’s mission is to promote energy dialogue on energy security, market stability and data transparency as well as new technologies and the energy transition.
The announcement to establish the forum was made on the day after the Leaders’ Summit on Climate convened by US President Joe Biden, where several countries made commitments to deeper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The United States is the world’s largest oil producer and also the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases. President Biden pledged yesterday to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent versus 2005 levels by 2030.
“To achieve our global climate goals we need cooperation from all major emitters, including oil and gas producing nations, to identify and act on solutions to phase out unabated fossil fuel emissions, while reducing emissions to the maximum extent possible in the interim,” the US Department of Energy said in a statement.
“For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy has led on creating a new international forum dedicated to developing long-term strategies to reach global net-zero emissions.”
