Oil Majors Join Forces in Climate Push with Renewable Energy Fund

Top oil companies including Saudi Aramco and Shell are joining forces to create an investment fund to develop technologies to promote renewable energy, as they seek an active role in the fight against global warming, sources said.

The chief executives of seven oil and gas companies -- BP, Eni, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, and Total -- will announce details of the fund and other steps to reduce greenhouse gases in London on Friday.

The sector faces mounting pressure to take an active role in the fight against global warming, and Friday's event will coincide with the formal entry into force of the 2015 Paris Agreement to phase out man-made greenhouse gases in the second half of the century.

The group is part of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which was created with the backing of the United Nations in 2014 and includes 11 companies representing 20 percent of global oil and gas production.

The company leaders are expected to detail plans to create an investment vehicle that will focus on developing technologies to lower emissions and increase car engine and fuel efficiency, according to the sources involved in the talks who declined to be named.
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The fund will also focus on ways to reduce costs of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions produced from fossil fuel burning plants and re-injecting them into underground caverns.

Read more at Exclusive: Oil Majors Join Forces in Climate Push with Renewable Energy Fund