Climate Change: How The Energy Industry Is Moving Forward

One argument I have found rather interesting is, “You are talking about climate change, worried for your children in the year 2070. I am worried about my child now!”        

Have you always wanted to be involved in climate change?

I've always had a knack for engineering since I was a child, and I suppose that's what led me to become an engineer. I was sponsored by an oil and gas company to study Engineering degree, which subsequently led me to work with them. After about 5 years working as an engineer, stepping up and taking on more responsibilities, I reached a point of seeking self-actualization. During that time, I was involved in a few projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions at offshore oil and gas facilities. I completed the projects successfully which gave me immense sense of satisfaction. Also, working on these projects naturally made me more aware of the issues related to climate change. Hence, I decided to play my part in tackling climate change issues. I took a leap of faith to take a year off my work and went to the University of Cambridge to pursue a Master’s degree in Engineering for Sustainable Development. Upon completion of the Master’s degree, I came back to my company and took up a role in Climate Change Management.

Working in the O&G industry, one of the fields that’s arguably responsible for climate change, how are we mitigating the effects of oil spill and fossil fuel burning (examples)?

While I aspire for a world powered by renewable and clean energy, the reality is that taking oil and gas out of the equation is not so easy. We need to have a just energy transition to ensure affordable, accessible, and secured energy to all communities while shifting into renewable energies. So, the oil and gas industry has its relevance, at least for now.?

I think the first step the oil and gas industry is playing is to reduce its own emissions. In the production of crude oil or natural gas, there are some areas where greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced. For example, in some oil and gas facility, there’s a need to release some gas to vent or flare to control its process’ pressure. The vented gas usually has methane (CH4). A molecule of methane has almost 30 times of global warming potential that of carbon dioxide (CO2). The industry is taking incremental steps in reducing the greenhouse gas emission. The first thing that has been done is to reduce this emission by making the plant even more efficient including redesigning the process to reclaim the gas that is previously vented/ flared. Also, the vent stacks can be converted to flare stack so that vented methane can be converted to carbon dioxide (burning methane gives a by-product of carbon dioxide and water).?

Secondly, many of the oil and gas players have acknowledged the problem and are trying to find ways to become part of the solution. One of the things the companies are doing is investing in research and development of clean energy solutions such as carbon capture and storage. Finally, the industry is also looking at reinventing itself. You can see many of the oil and gas companies are now heavily investing in renewable energy.

Is there a sustainable way of capitalising on oil and gas?

To answer this question, we must first define what we mean by sustainable way. Let’s use the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals to assess the sustainable way of capitalising on oil and gas. The 17 SDGs are created in a way that they complement each other. If we look at some of it in detail, some activities that can drive towards one goal may have some detrimental effect on another. The model was designed knowing this, and it is up to the policymakers, politicians, and engineers to find a balanced solution.?

I think moving away from Oil and Gas eventually is imminent. Let me share another idea here which is JUST Transition (Just as in Justice). While we are in this energy transition journey, we must make sure that the poorest people and countries are still having access to energy, at least for education, water, food, and basic health. In medium-income countries, if all buses become electric, the ticket may become just a little higher which may make it harder for some to access economic activity.?

So now to answer the question, how do we sustainably capitalise on oil and gas. To simplify, we want to take the profit from Oil and Gas and invest in renewable energy. While the industry is still supplying to the energy requirement, we slowly shift the energy supply proportions in a way that it doesn’t cause a jerk to the economy.?

?Decarbonizing seems like a great starting point for a greener energy production; but how much does it actually cost and how can we promote it more in the industry?

There has been some computation done on this question. Currently, the annual global energy investment stands at about USD 2 trillion. Some studies have shown that these figures may need to even double if the net-zero is to be achieved by 2050. That is a large sum of money.?

We can't simply use the money from the annual country budgets to make this type of investment. There is a lot of policy and planning involved here. I think regulators must be able to develop effective, timely and not disruptive policies to guide the market.?

I feel carbon pricing regulations have their place in the solution. A subset of it, carbon trading can have a lot of use in it. Carbon credit among nations allows one to invest in other countries to gain credits to offset their emissions in their country. So, we can see developed countries investing in developing countries so that some areas can leapfrog from no-energy to renewable energy.?

Climate change response seems to be slow; specifically in the Asian market. Is there a sense of urgency at all?

I think I share a lot of the frustration that the climate action in the Asian market is not as aggressive as what we see in the western countries. But let's also be fair in our assessment. One argument I have found rather interesting is, “You are talking about climate change, worried for your children in the year 2070. I am worried about my child now!”

I think that is a strong statement. It is not my intent to use an extreme argument to give a simple answer, but I think that sentence shows priorities. The Asian countries have some priorities that they feel deserve more attention than climate change. We may disagree from our perspectives, but maybe we should try to see it from their lens.?

While politicians are often seen as those who drive the nation, we forget that the politicians gain strength by echoing the voice of the mass. I think until the voice of many screams about climate action, many politicians would not drive changes. Nevertheless, I hope policies like carbon trading will create more market-level incentives to entice Asian countries to tackle climate change issues more aggressively.?

Given that renewable sources (currently) provide only a small percentage of our energy, are we on the right track?

I don’t think we are on the right trajectory. The current policies and climate actions in place are leading to a (around) 2.5°C world (the average temperature higher than the average temperature from pre-industrial time). If the non-binding pledges and targets are acted on, then maybe we can drop it to a (around) 2°C, which is still high!??

While it is hard to digest, it is the truth. Hence, more needs to be done by all parties to shift the change. The oil and gas industry needs to reinvent itself. On top of that, the consumers need to change as well. If the demand changes, the supply will change as well. So we need to work on both sides of the equation.?

Climate change activists have been calling for the energy industry to completely stop oil exploration. What’s your opinion as an energy professional yourself?

I think we need to stop our reliance on oil, I believe that is the future. Therefore, it is not about whether to stop or not. The right question is when. And I don’t think it is achievable in this decade. We must ensure that access to energy is still available, however, it needs to be balanced with the right strategies and policies of incrementally moving away from fossil-based fuels, to ensure the energy transition is done gradually, and in a just manner.

Interested to know more? Listen to our podcast on climate change with Dhina , available on YouTube .