Equinor, Norway's largest oil company, scales back its climate ambitions due to wind change

Equinor, the Norwegian energy company, has weakened its plan for energy transition as it struggles with delivering on promises to invest in renewable energy technologies and low-carbon technology. It cited practical difficulties and shifts in political priorities.

In 2022, the oil and gas producer laid out short and medium term steps to achieve net zero emission, including those from using its products, by 2050.

In February, however, the company reneged on its pledge to dedicate more than half of its capital expenditures to low-carbon and renewable solutions by 2030.

Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor, said that the energy transition had begun but that opportunities for high-value development were more limited than expected.

He cited higher costs, challenges in the supply chain, delays in setting up necessary framework conditions by authorities, as well a change in government priorities.

Opedal said that due to geopolitical tensions, the public expenditure on defence would increase, leaving a smaller amount of funding for the energy transformation.

Equinor's target for renewable energy installed capacity has been reduced from 12-16 gigawatts to 10-12 gigawatts by 2030.

Equinor's oil-and-gas competitors, such as BP, are also cutting back, or abandoning efforts to make low-carbon and renewable energy a larger part of their business.

Others have begun to withdraw money. Sarasin, a key investor in Equinor, sold its Equinor shares this year.

Equinor maintains its goal to achieve net zero emissions by the year 2050. It also sticks with a target that aims to reduce emissions from group activity by half by 2030 compared to 2015 levels.

It has, however, scaled back its targets for reducing the net carbon intensity (its key climate benchmark) to a range between 15-20% by 2030, from 20% and to 30-40% by 2035, from 40%.

Carbon intensity is an relative measure that describes the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of activity. Reporting by Nora Buli, Nerijus Adomatis; Editing by Kevin Liffey

(source: Reuters)