Italy's oil major Eni will announce by the end of this year binding commitments to become carbon neutral, its chief executive Claudio Descalzi said on Monday, in what would be the first pledge by a major oil company to commit to a net zero carbon footprint.
Eni's "epochal" announcement and the timing of achieving the carbon-neutral goal will be made later this year, Descalzi said on the sidelines of a conference.
"A new and strategic cycle has begun for Eni; from being an oil company it has become an energy company and is now betting on the circular economy to become carbon neutral," Descalzi said, as carried by Reuters.
"The aim is to optimise the production of waste," added Eni's chief executive.
Last month, Descalzi said in a post on the company's website:
"There is no doubt that the energy sector, which for decades has enabled the world economy to grow and prosper, has contributed to the increase in emissions and therefore has a responsibility to reduce them. At Eni, we have drastically reduced our carbon footprint. Scientific research and digitalization are helping us to go even further: smart digital solutions applied in all our business environments will ensure that by 2030 our CO2 emissions are reduced by 20 per cent."
Eni's announcement will be the first by a major oil company to set binding time-specific goals to become carbon neutral. Some of the other majors have stated goals to reduce or at least keep carbon emissions flat, under pressure from investors and shareholders.
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BP, for example, said in April that it plans to keep net greenhouse gas emissions from its operations at or below 2015 levels out to 2025. BP aims to reduce 3.5 million tons of annual CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions throughout its businesses by 2025.
Shell has said that it wants to halve its carbon emissions by 2050. Shell's shareholders voted down in May a proposal by an activist group to set binding emissions targets to limit global warming. The oil major had recommended that its shareholders vote against the climate resolution, arguing that its current plan for energy transition is more progressive and flexible than the target-binding draft resolution.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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