COP28 Presidency and Saudi Arabia launched the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter (OGDC), a global industry charter aimed at speeding up climate action across the oil and gas sectors.

Officials said 50 oil and gas companies, representing more than 40 percent of global oil production, have signed the charter, reported Emirates News Agency (WAM).

National Oil Companies represented over 60 percent of signatories, the largest-ever number of NOCs to commit to a decarbonisation initiative.

Signatories have committed to net-zero operations by 2050, ending routine flaring by 2030, and near-zero upstream methane emissions.

In a WAM statement, COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber said, “The launch of the charter is a great first step - and whilst many national oil companies have adopted net-zero 2050 targets for the first time, I know that they and others, can and need to do more. We need the entire industry to keep 1.5C within reach and set even stronger ambitions for decarbonisation.”

Under the charter, oil and gas companies also agreed to continue to work towards industry best practices in emission reductions. Some of the key actions they agreed to take included: investing in renewables, low-carbon fuels and negative emissions technologies; reducing energy poverty; and providing secure and affordable energy to support the development of all economies.

Signatories will also work on increasing alignment with broader industry best practices to accelerate decarbonisation of operations and reduce emissions by 2030.

Al-Jaber added that the charter recognized that climate change is “a collective challenge that requires strong and focused action from producers and consumers of energy, fundamental changes across society and the energy sector, as well as international collaboration, to advance the energy transition and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas.”

He stressed that a clear plan is needed to focus efforts on the right direction. “If we want to accelerate progress across the climate agenda, we must bring everyone in to be accountable and responsible for climate action. We must all focus on reducing emissions and apply a positive can-do vision to drive climate action and get everyone to take action.”

The charter was a key initiative under the Global Decarbonisation Accelerator (GDA), which was launched at the COP28 World Climate Action Summit.