Notes

  • 1
    Authors’ analysis based on “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Energy Data Explorer”, International Energy Agency, 2 August 2023, www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tools/greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-energy-data-explorer. And Hannah Ritchie, Max Roser, and Pablo Rosado, “CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” Our World in Data, 2020, ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions.
  • 2
    Authors’ calculations based on Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” Our World in Data, 2020. And “Oil and Natural Gas Supply,” IEA, 2022, www.iea.org/reports/oil-and-natural-gas-supply. Quoted in African Natural Resources Management and Investment Centre, Minimising Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Petroleum Sector: The Opportunity for Emerging Producers (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: African Development Bank, 2022), 14, www.newproducersgroup.online/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Minimising-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions-in-the-Petroleum-Sector.pdf.
  • 3
    In order to ensure greater international equity in the energy transition, authorities in countries implementing schemes such as the EU’s CBAM should include, in or alongside such schemes, measures to mitigate their negative effects on low and middle-income countries, e.g., through financial and/or technical assistance to help such countries green their economies.
  • 4
    Methane is a common by-product of oil extraction and a particularly potent greenhouse gas. In the process of getting oil and gas out of the ground, it is commonly emitted either through leaks or planned release into the atmosphere – either unburned (“venting”) or burned (“flaring”). Processing (e.g., refining) and transporting oil and gas also generate significant emissions. See “Methane from Oil and Gas Production Explained,”  The World Bank - Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, accessed 24 October 2023, www.worldbank.org/en/programs/gasflaringreduction/methane-explained.
  • 5
    The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels is an “[O]pen-source database of oil, gas and coal production and reserves globally, expressed in CO2-equivalent… It contains data from 139 fossil fuel producing countries, which amounts to 99% of fossil fuel production aggregated to the national level.” The database also provides estimates of the emissions from producing oil and gas in 91 oil producing countries and 71 gas producers. See “Global Registry of Fossil Fuel Emissions and Reserves”, Global Registry of Fossil Fuels, accessed 4 September 2023, fossilfuelregistry.org.
  • 6
    Figures 1 and 2 show a selection of countries, including some of the world’s larger oil producers, some of the world’s lower emitting producers as well as a selection of countries where NRGI operates. This is intended to provide reference points to explore whether individual countries will be more or less “carbon-competitive” than other producers based on current intensities and identifying potential examples of good practice among lower emitting producers. We also include a selection of higher-emitting producers, which may provide examples of practices to avoid.
  • 7
    Source: “Carbon Intensity in the Fossil Fuel Supply Chain”, Global Registry of Fossil Fuels, 2023, fossilfuelregistry.org/carbon-intensity. Global Warming Potential (GWP) 20 is applied to methane emissions; see “Methane and Climate Change,” IEA, accessed 4 September 2023, www.iea.org/reports/methane-tracker-2021/methane-and-climate-change. The impact would be smaller if we used Global Warming Potential 100. The impact over the next 20 years is important and sufficient to justify action on cutting upstream emissions (and using GWP 100 would fail to show this); this is why we have chosen to display GWP 20 in this figure and figure 2. For further discussion, see Janos Maté and David Kanter, “The Benefits of Basing Policies on the 20 Year GWP of HFCs” (Greenpeace, 2011), ozone.unep.org/system/files/documents/Benefits%20of%20Basing%20Policies%20on%2020%20GWP%20of%20HFCs.pdf.
  • 8
    The world’s largest oil producers are the United States (accounting for 21 percent of global production), Saudi Arabia (13 percent) and Russia (10 percent). See “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - What Countries Are the Top Producers and Consumers of Oil?”, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 22 September 2023, www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=709&t=6.
  • 9
    Source: “Carbon Intensity in the Fossil Fuel Supply Chain.”
  • 10
    The world’s largest (fossil) gas producers are the United States (accounting for 25 percent of production), Russia (17 percent) and Iran (6 percent). See “Natural Gas Production”, Enerdata World Energy & Climate Statistics - Yearbook 2023, accessed 4 September 2023, www.doi.org/yearbook.enerdata.net/natural-gas/world-natural-gas-production-statistics.html. And Statista Research Department, “Natural Gas Production Worldwide from 1998 to 2022”, Statista, 29 August 2023, www.statista.com/statistics/265344/total-global-natural-gas-production-since-1998.
  • 11
    RMI provides data on supply chain emissions by oil and gas project. See RMI, “Assessing Global Oil and Gas Emissions”, Oil Climate Index plus Gas, 2023, ociplus.rmi.org.
  • 12
    Some initiatives to capture methane emissions can have a positive net present value for companies. See Chantal Beck et al., “The Future of Oil and Gas Is Now: How Companies Can Decarbonize,” McKinsey & Company, 7 January 2020, www.mckinsey.com/industries/oil-and-gas/our-insights/the-future-is-now-how-oil-and-gas-companies-can-decarbonize.
  • 13
    Authors’ calculations based on Tomas de Oliveira Bredariol and Christophe McGlade, “Fossil Fuels,” IEA, 11 July 2023, www.iea.org/energy-system/fossil-fuels. And Tomas de Oliveira Bredariol and Christophe McGlade, “Gas Flaring,” IEA, accessed 15 September 2023, www.iea.org/energy-system/fossil-fuels/gas-flaring.
  • 14
    This is a 30 percent cut relative to 2020 levels.
  • 15
    Authors’ analysis based on Rebecca Schulz, Christophe McGlade, and Peter Zeniewski, “Putting Gas Flaring in the Spotlight,” IEA, 9 December 2020, www.iea.org/commentaries/putting-gas-flaring-in-the-spotlight. And “Nigeria,” The World Bank, June 2022, flaringventingregulations.worldbank.org/nigeria.
  • 16
    In 2022 Nigeria’s government “[I[ssued guidelines to support the elimination of routine gas flaring by 2030 and a 60 percent reduction in fugitive methane emissions by 2031.” “Methane Abatement,” IEA, accessed 2 October 2023, www.iea.org/energy-system/fossil-fuels/methane-abatement.

Authors