National Oil Companies and the Energy Transition: Looking to COP28 and Beyond

National oil companies from emerging markets produce about 50 percent of the world’s oil, hold about 50 percent of global refining capacity, and own most of the world’s oil and gas reserves. With oil prices at more than USD 80/barrel, they are also generating significant oil revenues. With COP28 taking place in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil exporting country with a strong national oil company, the role of oil and gas in the energy transition, and that of national oil companies, is going to take center stage in the discussions in Dubai.

What are these companies’ decarbonization goals? What kind of investments are they making in clean energy technologies, if any? The Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) hosted a discussion to explore the policy and investment choices of national oil companies in the energy transition. 

Moderator

• Patrick Heller, chief program officer, Natural Resource Governance Institute

Speakers

• Erica Downs, senior research scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA
• Tatiana Mitrova, research fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA
• Luisa Palacios, senior research scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA
• Karen E. Young, senior research scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA

This event took place in person in New York City and was live-streamed via Zoom.