The momentum of the energy transition continues to accelerate. Following the milestone COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, governments worldwide are mandating increasingly aggressive net-zero targets for industry, stating that the world must reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 to avert a climate emergency. Even beyond the regulatory environment, lenders are prioritizing ESG spending and public opinion continues to call for the push towards clean energy. In response to the urgency of decarbonization, the world has undertaken significant efforts to accelerate the energy transition including increasing electrification and exponential investment in renewables and green fuels. Bloomberg research shows that, in 2021 alone, clean energy spending amounted to $755 billion.1 While this may seem to call the long-term future of oil and gas into question, this year's continuing energy crisis has shown that the oil and gas industry will continue to play a central role in the world's energy mix and in the economies of many countries around the world in the years to come. Recent McKinsey research2 estimates that the oil and gas industry's operations directly amount to around 9% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and as a result, the industry must play a central role in leading the march towards decarbonization and in accelerating the energy transition. This is becoming increasingly recognized; the upcoming COP27 and COP28 climate conferences are being held in Cairo and Dubai respectively, the first-time talks are being held in OPEC countries in consecutive years3. The industry has mainly approached this decarbonization challenge with a two-pronged approach: first, decarbonizing current operations, not just on the asset level, but across the value chain; and secondly, efficiently delivering and operating the new facilities that are needed for the energy transition, particularly hydrogen facilities.
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