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Kerry challenges oil industry to prove its promised
tech rescue for climate-wrecking emissions
by ELLEN
KNICKMEYER
May 17, 2023
The fight — fast production cuts versus technological rescue —
promises to come to a head this year.
Annual U.N.-sponsored climate talks meant to help keep
countries on track to meet their pledges to cut emissions are being
held this year in the United Arab Emirates.
The talks will be hosted by Sultan al-Jaber, the chief
executive officer of the Emirates’ state oil company. Like the U.S.
and several other countries, the Gulf nation is expanding drilling
even as it champions the climate cause.
Going into November’s climate talks, al-Jaber is calling for a
phase-out of ’’fossil fuel emissions,” leaving it ambiguous whether he
means a ramping up of technology or is open to some production cuts.
At the 2021 U.N. climate talks in Scotland, countries for the
first time agreed to phase down the global use of coal. Talks the next
year in Egypt saw a major push for a commitment to phase out oil and
gas, but it failed.
While nonbinding, any agreement out of this year’s climate
talks that the world should start phasing out oil and gas production
would be a first. It would put governments and the industry on the
spot to comply.
Kerry rejected the idea of putting a deadline on phasing out
oil and gas production. How fast that can happen depends partly on how
fast the world moves to electric vehicles and renewable-fueled power
grids, he said.
Instead, he said, this year’s climate talks will “quite
possibly” produce an international agreement to phase out the use of
“unabated” oil and natural gas, meaning oil and gas where the carbon
emissions are not captured. This could disappoint those calling for
fast cuts in oil and gas production.
Kerry said the deadline to watch is 2030. By then, the U.N.’s
top climate panel says, the world will need to have nearly halved
climate-damaging emissions to stave off the more devastating scenarios
of global warming.
“We can’t let the wish or the hope govern common sense here,”
Kerry said. “If we know that we can get the job done by deploying more
renewables and current technology, we ought to be doing that.”
This story was first published on May 14, 2023. It was updated
on May 17, 2023, to fix the position of clarifying note that made
clear the American Petroleum Institute was declining comment on how
quickly carbon capture technology would be ready and to clarify its
position on supporting federal policies.
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