A rollercoaster COP29 UN climate summit in Baku ended with an agreement in overtime under which rich countries will pay developing countries $300bn a year by 2035 to ameliorate climate change impacts.
This outcome failed to satisfy those who believe the task needs a lot more money than that. But despite the mixed views on the headline agreement, the conference did provide a platform for momentum in various other aspects of climate action. One notable area was the drive towards greater use of digital tools to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and advance sustainable development.
A new COP29 Declaration on Green Digital Action, was highlighted on a Digitalisation Day held during the conference. Organisers said the declaration had been endorsed so far by more than 90 governments and over 1,000 members of the digital tech community, including companies, civil society organisations, and international and regional organisations.
The declaration calls for sector-wide collaboration to accelerate climate-positive digitalisation, improve energy efficiency, and promote inclusive digital access, particularly in developing countries.
Conference President Mukhtar Babayev said it provided a unique opportunity to combat the climate crisis, given its call to the digital industry to take responsibility for its environmental footprint.
“From artificial intelligence in climate modelling to optimising renewable energy systems, digital advancements are key to accelerating sustainable solutions on a global scale,” he said.
The initiative is the product of a collaboration between the COP29 Presidency, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee (TEC), and others. It builds on work by ITU and over 40 partners, showcased at the COP28 meeting in the United Arab Emirates, to lay out the challenges and opportunities if technology is harnessed for climate action.
ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin described the declaration as a significant advance in tackling both climate change and the climate impact of digital solutions themselves, such as the escalating energy requirements of data centres.
“This milestone moment for Green Digital Action should propel us forward with the shared belief that we can and must reduce the environmental footprint of digital technologies while leveraging their undeniable potential to tackle the climate crisis. Let’s keep building our green digital momentum all the way to COP30, and with it, a more sustainable digital future for generations to come,” she said.
Tackling methane flaring
One of the declaration’s aims is to mobilise the digital technology industry to take greater action in tacking climate change, given its key role in areas such as climate monitoring, early warning systems, and overall climate adaptation and mitigation. But the call for action also underscores the role digital technology has to play in improving energy efficiency and cutting down on emissions across all industries, including the oil and gas sector.
To that end, COP29 host country Azerbaijan has been keen to counter perceptions that it has been lukewarm over initiatives to wean the world off fossil fuels, instead highlighting its efforts to cut down emissions from its own hydrocarbons sector.
The country is already a signatory to the Global Methane Pledge and the COP28 presidency’s Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), both designed to curb GHG emissions from the hydrocarbons sector. To that end, Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR announced during the conference, a contract under which oilfield services firm Baker Hughes would provide an integrated gas recovery and hydrogen sulphide removal system to reduce flaring at SOCAR’s Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery in Baku.
Baker Hughes said the project was a tangible step toward ending routine flaring by 2030 at SOCAR’s site, which would use innovative applications of its emissions abatement technologies. The project is expected to recover flare gas equivalent up to 7 million cubic metres/year of methane and reduce CO2 emissions by up to 11,000 tons/ year.
Azerbaijan has committed to reduce GHG emissions by 35% by 2030, having sharply increased its emissions over the last two decades, as a result of the expansion its oil and gas industry. It hopes to partly achieve this by developing renewable energy sources, including its geothermal resources. That ambition that has prompted SOCAR to sign a further agreement with Baker Hughes, along with fellow oilfield services firm SLB, under which they will cooperate on identifying opportunities to exploit Azerbaijan’s geothermal potential. Geothermal energy is seen playing an important role in the energy transition around the world, and its development is benefitting from expertise developed by the oil and gas industry.
(Photo: COP29 Roundtable on Green Digital Action/UN Climate Change – Kamran Guliyev)
