Oil giant led by COP28 boss to spend an ‘eyewatering’ $1 billion a month on fossil fuels this decade, Global Witness says
Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and president of this year’s COP28 climate summit gestures during an interview as part of the 7th Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) in Brussels on July 13, 2023.
Francois Walschaerts | Afp | Getty Images
UAE oil giant ADNOC — run by the president of the COP28 climate conference — is expected to spend more than $1 billion every month this decade on fossil fuels, according to new analysis by international NGO Global Witness.
This is nearly seven times higher than its commitment to decarbonization projects over the same timeframe, the research says.
ADNOC, which recently became the first among its peers to bring forward its net-zero ambition to 2045, disputes Global Witness’ analysis and says the assumptions made are inaccurate.
It comes ahead of the COP28 climate summit, with Dubai set to host the U.N.’s annual conference from Nov. 30 through to Dec. 12. Viewed as one of the most significant climate conferences since 2015’s landmark Paris Agreement, COP28 will see global leaders gather to discuss how to progress in the fight against the climate crisis.
The person overseeing the talks, Sultan al-Jaber, is chief executive of ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) — one of the world’s largest oil and gas firms. His position as both COP28 president and ADNOC CEO caused dismay among civil society groups and U.S. and EU lawmakers, although several government ministers have since defended his appointment.
Global Witness’ analysis, provided exclusively to CNBC, found that ADNOC is planning to spend an average of $1.14 billion a month on oil and gas production alone between now and 2030 — the same year in which the U.N. says the world must cut emissions by 45% to avoid global catastrophe.
It means that ADNOC is forecast to spend nearly seven times more on fossil fuels through to 2030 than it does on “low-carbon solution” projects.
By 2050, the year in which the U.N. says the entire world economy must achieve net-zero emissions, ADNOC is projected to have invested $387 billion in oil and gas. The burning of fossil fuels is the chief driver of the climate emergency.
A spokesperson at ADNOC told CNBC via email: “The analysis of, and assumptions made, regarding ADNOC’s capital expenditure program beyond the company’s current five-year business plan (2023 to 2027) are speculative and therefore incorrect.”
The Abu Dhabi energy group announced in January this year that it would allocate $15 billion for investment in “low-carbon solutions” by 2030, including investments in clean power, carbon capture and storage and electrification projects.
High-rise tower buildings along the central Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on July 3, 2023.
Karim Sahib | Afp | Getty Images
Global Witness arrived at its projections by analyzing ADNOC’s forecasted oil and gas capital expenditure, exploratory capital expenditure and operational expenditure for the period from 2023 to 2050. The data was sourced from Rystad Energy’s UCube database.
Rystad’s data is not available to the public, but is widely used and referenced by major oil and gas companies and international bodies.
“Fossil fuels companies like to burnish their green credentials, yet they rarely say the quiet part out loud: that they continue to throw eyewatering amounts at the same old polluting oil and gas that is accelerating the climate crisis,” said Patrick Galey, senior investigator at Global Witness.
“How [al-Jaber] can expect to lecture other nations on the need to decarbonise and be taken seriously is anyone’s guess, while he continues to provide vastly more funding to oil and gas than to renewable alternatives,” he added.
“He is a fossil fuel boss, plain and simple, saying one thing while his company does the other,” Galey said.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the analysis conducted by Global Witness. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC.
Main priority for COP28
Al-Jaber was the founding CEO of Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable energy firm Masdar, which works in more than 40 countries worldwide and has invested in or committed to invest in renewable energy projects with a total value of over $30 billion.
Speaking earlier this year, al-Jaber said the main priority for the COP28 summit will be to keep alive the fight to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond the critical temperature threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, it becomes more likely that small changes can trigger dramatic shifts in Earth’s entire life support system.
The International Energy Agency says no new oil, gas or coal development is compatible with the goal of curbing global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In response to a request for comment from CNBC, an ADNOC spokesperson said that energy demand is increasing as the world’s population is expanding. “All of the current energy transition scenarios, including by the IEA, show that some level of oil and gas will be needed into the future,” the spokesperson said.
“As such, it is important that, in addition to accelerating investments in renewables and lower carbon energy solutions, we consider the least carbon intensive sources of oil and gas and further reduce their intensity to enable a fair, equitable, orderly, and responsible energy transition. This is the approach ADNOC is taking,” they added.
The spokesperson said its 2022 upstream emissions data confirmed the energy group as one of the least carbon-intensive producers worldwide. The company will seek to further reduce its carbon intensity by 25% and target near zero methane emissions by 2030, they added.
“As we reduce our emissions, we are also ramping up investments in renewables and zero carbon energies like hydrogen for our customers,” the spokesperson said.
A separate report published in April last year by Global Witness and Oil Change International found that 20 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies were projected to spend $932 billion by the end of the decade to develop new oil and gas fields.
At that time, Russian state company Gazprom was estimated to spend the most on fossil fuel development and exploration projects through to 2030 ($139 billion), followed by U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil ($84 billion) and Chevron ($67 billion).
Despite its small size, Volvo’s cheapest EV continued its dominant run last month in Europe. The Volvo EX30 was Europe’s second-best-selling EV, behind only the Tesla Model Y, as sales continued surging.
Volvo EX30 sales continue surging in Europe in August
According to new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), EV registration in the EU fell by 43.9% in August as the two biggest markets, Germany (-68.8%) and France (-33.1%), saw significant declines.
Despite this, Volvo was one of the bright spots, as overall vehicle sales climbed 36%. With 19,605 vehicles sold last month, Volvo topped Tesla and Fiat to become the fourteenth largest automaker in the EU, UK, and EFTA countries, according to Dataforce.
Volvo’s growth was largely thanks to the new EX30, which added 6,377 in sales to its total. The growth was enough to become Europe’s second best-selling EV, behind only Tesla’s Model Y.
The accomplishment is significant, given Volvo handed over the first EX30 models last December.
Volvo’s global sales rose 3% in August, with 52,944 cars sold. The EX30 was its fourth top-selling vehicle, with 8,346 units sold, behind the XC60 (14,723) and XC40/EX40, which had 10,668 combined sales.
Starting at around 36,000 euros ($40,000), the EX30 is one of Europe’s most affordable EVs. Although due to hit the market later than expected, the EX30 is scheduled to launch in the US next year, starting at $34,950.
The delay comes as the US announced a new 100% tariff on EVs imported from China, where the EX30 is currently built.
Volvo is fast-tracking production at its Ghent, Belgium plant to export EX30 models to the US, enabling it to bypass the additional tariffs.
Electrek’s Take
Will the Volvo EX30 have the same impact in the US? Starting at under $35,000, the small electric SUV will not only be one of the cheapest EVs in the US but also one of the most affordable vehicles (gas-powered or EV) on the market.
According to the latest data from Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price (ATP) for a new vehicle in the US was $47,870 in August.
Volvo is also launching its flagship electric seven-seater, the EX90 (check out our review of the luxury 7-seat kid-hauler).
Although Volvo’s sales in the US and Canada were down 0.2% through the first eight months, Volvo expects new EVs in key segments to quickly recharge sales.
Source: Automotive News
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Chicago-based NanoGraf will build a $175 million factory to produce 2,500 tons of silicon anode material to support up to 1.5 million EVs per year.
NanoGraf’s new factory
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $60 million to the silicon anode battery company to help build its factory under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
NanoGraf’s project is one of 25 selected across 14 states to receive a portion of the over $3 billion in grants that the DOE announced today. These grants aim to strengthen domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials in the US.
NanoGraf will use the grant, in addition to its own capital, to retrofit an existing factory in Flint, Michigan. It will be one of the world’s largest silicon anode facilities, significantly boosting US efforts to onshore the battery supply chain. The company says its advanced silicon anode battery material enables stronger, lighter, and longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries.
The Flint factory is NanoGraf’s third battery material factory and increases the company’s total manufacturing footprint to over 414,000 square feet. NanoGraf currently produces silicon anode material for the US military out of two Chicago-based manufacturing facilities, including a new R&D facility at 455 N Ashland Avenue and its headquarters at 400 N Noble Street.
The project will create approximately 200 construction jobs through a project labor agreement with the North American Building Trades Union. Up to 150 new permanent jobs will be created for operations, and around 80% are expected to come directly from the local community.
NanoGraf has signed a neutrality agreement with the United Steelworkers and says it’s committed to partnering with them should a majority of employees wish to unionize.
Electrek’s Take
In November 2022, Connor Hund, chief operating officer at NanoGraf, and I discussed a $10 million Department of Defense contract that the company had secured.
Hund told me that the company’s 18-month contract with the DoD allowed it to scale up domestic production in a careful and deliberate way so that it could lay the groundwork for the next stage of supplying domestically produced batteries to the EV market by 2024.
NanoGraf doesn’t say when it intends to open the Flint factory, but it’s certainly moving toward the next-stage goal that it set in a timely fashion. A huge domestically made lithium-ion battery factory is a welcome thing.
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