THE Church of England Pensions Board has welcomed pledges by eight of the world’s leading oil and gas producers on moving the energy industry away from fossil fuels.

The companies — BP, Eni, Equinor, Galp, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell, and Total — have jointly agreed to apply six Energy Transition Principles. They are to: support publicly the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change; work to reduce carbon emissions from their own operations and by customers and society; develop and promote approaches to reducing emissions; support and promote development of emissions sinks, such as carbon capture and utilisation and storage technology; provide disclosure related to climate-change risks and opportunities; and report information about their memberships of industry and trade associations and their alignment with the companies’ key climate-advocacy and -policy positions.

Adam Matthews, who represents the Pensions Board on the Climate Action 100+ European Working Group on a Net Zero Standard in Oil and Gas, said: “This is an important foundational commitment. It represents a significant consolidation of the progress that has been made in Europe, whilst also seeing the first US oil and gas company joining with their European peers.”

Climate Action 100+ is an investors’ initiative launched in 2017 to put pressure on the world’s largest corporate greenhouse-gas emitters to take action in response to climate change. It is backed by more than 500 investors with more than £37.8 trillion in assets under management.

Mr Matthews, who chairs the working group, said: “As CA100+ investors, we are in extensive and detailed dialogue with the oil and gas sector, and it is extremely helpful to have a position from these companies that unifies around core principles, including on scope-3 emissions and corporate lobbying, amongst others.”