DUBAI, July  31, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The national oil giant of the United Arab
Emirates, host of this year's UN climate talks, said Monday it had accelerated
its emission reduction goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company "is accelerating its decarbonisation
plan to advance its net-zero ambition to 2045, compared to its previous target
of 2050," ADNOC said in a statement.

It said is intends to "increase its investments and redouble efforts in
decarbonisation," relying on an initial financing of $15 billion for
"low-carbon solutions" and achieving "zero methane emissions by 2030".

Environmental groups charge that net-zero pledges from the world's energy
giants are misleading when the companies in fact plan to increase their oil and
gas sales, as ADNOC does.

The pledges to cut emissions apply to producing, refining and processing
operations -- not to the vastly greater emissions caused when the fuel is burnt
to power cars, planes and factories.

The oil giant said it has "reduced its greenhouse gas emissions" by about
five million tons in 2022, mostly through the use of solar and nuclear energy,
to power all of its onshore operations.

The UAE, one of the world's leading oil exporters, is set to host the COP28
climate summit in November and December.

Its new plans set this month to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 19
percent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels were criticised by analysts as
"insufficient".

Climate Action Tracker, a project run by non-profit climate groups, said
that while this marked an improvement on the UAE's previous plan, its intention
to increase fossil fuel production would render it "unachievable".

ADNOC CEO Sultan Al Jaber, who will head up the UN climate talks, has
argued that fossil fuels will to continue to play a key role, and that carbon
capture technologies will play contain emissions.

The world remains far off track on the Paris Agreement's goals to curb
global warming to two degrees Celsius, and preferably 1.5C.

Meanwhile, global temperatures have hit record highs this month as people
across the planet have been pounded by floods, storms and crop-withering
heatwaves.