Opec defends ‘vilified’ oil industry on eve of climate meeting
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Opec secretary-general Haitham Al Ghais accused the IEA of using social media platforms to criticise and instruct the oil and gas industry.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
DUBAI – The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) issued a strongly worded defence of the oil and gas industry days before the start of the biggest-ever climate talks,
Opec said that the IEA has “unjustly vilified” the industry over its role in the climate crisis, according to a Nov 27 statement that took issue with a recent report from the Paris-based agency. The oil industry is embracing renewables, with major investments being made, and it is investing in technologies to reduce emissions, Opec said.
“The manner in which the IEA has unfortunately used its social media platforms in recent days to criticise and instruct the oil and gas industry is undiplomatic,” Opec secretary-general Haitham Al Ghais said. “Opec itself is not an organisation that would prescribe to others what they should do.”
COP28 begins on Nov 30 in Dubai, with the summit’s president Sultan Al Jaber also being the head of the Opec producer’s state oil company, making it one of the most controversial climate summits to date. On the same day, Opec and its partners from outside the grouping, including Russia, are due to convene online in a delayed meeting to agree on production levels for 2024.
A framework proposed by the IEA to align company targets with net-zero goals “is a tool intended to curtail the sovereign actions and choices of oil- and gas-producing developing countries, through pressurising their national oil companies”, the group said. It also defended carbon capture technology. BLOOMBERG
