Today, the 5th of June, is World Environment Day (WED), an annual event dedicated to raising awareness about environmental issues across the globe. WED has been marked since 1973 under the supervision of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). This year, the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) has been chosen to host the occasion, with the theme of focus being plastic pollution and its associated hazards.
Given the connection between plastic production and oil and gas production, failure to effectively curb these activities could result in their share reaching up to 19% of the total permissible emissions as outlined in the Paris Agreement. The ultimate objective should be to limit global temperature increases to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal that can only be achieved by halving annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
If countries around the world, including Libya, do not decrease the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions then air pollution rates could increase by more than 50% within this decade. It is also expected that the amount of plastic waste that may reach aquatic systems could nearly triple by 2040, which is an integral part of the side effects of global warming and climate change.
The National Oil Corporation (NOC) Board of Directors treats reducing emissions as a priority and has established the “Initiative 2030” technical committee to lead this work. The primary goal of this program is to develop comprehensive plans tailored to the Libyan oil and gas sector, with a specific focus on minimizing gas flaring across all fields, facilities, and oil sites with the ultimate objective of eliminating flaring by the year 2030.
The NOC and its subsidiaries affirm that they will spare no effort to curb and reduce flaring rates as well as to promote sustainability and invest in clean energy, as it is an important element in replacing gas flaring and benefiting from it.
Therefore, the Corporation emphasizes the need to work together diligently to reduce and limit gas flaring so that the Libyan oil and gas sector can play a positive role in the global system to mitigate the effects of climate change.