The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) will be officially launched on November 10th at
COP26 in Glasgow
• Where: Press conference room – Giant’s Causeway Area H
• Live stream link: https://unfccc-cop26.streamworld.de/program
BOGA will be the first diplomatic initiative exclusively focused on tackling the production of
oil and gas as a tool to address the climate crisis.
• More information can be found at www.beyondoilandgasalliance.com
Despite growing calls to align the supply of fossil fuels with carbon budgets, international
climate action remains primarily focused on reducing demand for fossil fuels.
• The Paris Agreement does not explicitly mention fossil fuels and only a few countries’ climat
plans include explicit measures to restrict the production of fossil fuels.
BOGA has the potential to help redefine climate leadership.
• It brings together first mover countries and subnational actors to create an international platform
that can reframe the global climate conversation to ensure phasing out fossil fuel production is
seen as a key tenet of climate action.
BOGA will be co-chaired by the governments of Costa Rica and Denmark. It will have 3 tiers of
membership:
• Core members will need to commit to ending new concessions, licensing or leasing rounds for
oil and gas exploration and extraction and set a Paris-aligned date for ending oil and gas
production and exploration on the territory over which they have jurisdiction.
• Associate members will be countries that have taken measures in support of restricting fossil
fuel supply but have not yet adopted a full licensing ban. Measures include domestic fossil fuel
subsidy reform, ending international public finance for fossil fuel extraction, ending research
and development (R&D) subsidies for fossil fuels and signaling an interest in taking additional
measures to limit fossil fuel supply by 2025.
• Friends of BOGA will be jurisdictions and organizations that wish to express their support to
the objectives of BOGA but do not necessarily hold responsibility over oil and gas licenses.
• All members (core, associate and friends) will be asked to sign a declaration outlining the need
to align global fossil fuel production with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and quoting the
latest available science showing that the continued expansion of fossil fuel production is
incompatible with these objectives.
Detailed information about the initiative can be found in this briefing note.
FAQ
What makes BOGA interesting/newsworthy?
BOGA is the first diplomatic initiative that acknowledges that keeping fossil fuels in the ground is an
urgent and crucial component of tackling the climate crisis. It aims to address one of the gaps of the
Paris Agreement, which is that continued expansion of fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with limiting
warming to 1.5°C. Its creation shows that the end of the fossil fuel era is in the making and that the
writing is on the wall for the industry.
Who’s involved?
The initiative is led by Costa Rica and Denmark. The full list of members will be announced on
November 10th.
Isn’t this initiative irrelevant if it doesn’t include the world’s largest oil and gas producers?
Denmark is the largest oil and gas producer in Europe. BOGA is a first movers club. It’s designed to set
an example and redefine climate leadership, so it is to be expected that this group would start small
and grow overtime. BOGA brings together the jurisdictions that are starting to heed the calls from
science to keep fossil fuels in the ground, a step that none of the major oil and gas producers has taken
so far. It’s incumbent on countries, in particular the wealthy, economically diversified producing
countries such as Canada, Norway, USA and UK, to align with this new benchmark of climate action if
they want to have international credibility as climate leaders.
Shouldn’t countries focus on reducing the combustion of fossil fuels rather than production?
Over the last decades, the focus of climate policy around the world has been on reducing the
consumption of fossil fuels. This has not led to a reduction of global GHG emissions. There are several
reasons tackling both the production and consumption of fossil fuels is critical:
• Once fossil fuel infrastructure is built, CO2 emissions are locked in for several decades.
• Operators of the infrastructure have a strong incentive to ensure the asset’s lifetime is as long
as possible to ensure profitability, which they do through lobbying against climate policy.
• Government policy encourages more fossil fuel production. Despite claiming to support
renewable energy deployment, governments continue to provide large scale support to fossil
fuel infrastructure. G20 countries provided USD 77bn per year in fossil fuel subsidies since the
Paris Agreement was signed.
Won’t cutting production in one country move production to other countries with lower
environmental standards?
The argument that reducing the supply of fossil fuels in one country will lead to an increase of
production in other countries is misleading. It assumes that countries can start or increase production
instantly and at a level commensurate with the restrictions being applied elsewhere. This might not be
the case as long-term economic and technical conditions cast a doubt on the ability of major producers
to step up production beyond the 2020s. Additionally, restricting the production of oil and gas will
increase their price on international markets, which will lower consumption and reduce CO2 emissions
globally.
Some countries, like Canada, the UK and Norway, portray their oil and gas as cleaner than others, due
to lower emissions per produced unit compared to the world average. Therefore, they put great
emphasis on how continuing to produce oil and gas is part of the solution to climate change. This is of
course not true, and the majority of the emissions come from the use of oil and gas, and not the
extraction. According to oil and gas major TotalEnergies, 85-90% of the CO2 produced by oil comes
from burning it, while 10-15% comes from producing it. Therefore, while cutting emissions from oil and
gas production, including methane leaks, is a critical step all oil and gas producers should take urgently,
the only way for an oil and gas company to become emission-free is to stop producing.
Does BOGA also address public finance for fossil fuels?
BOGA is focused on ending new licensing rounds for fossil fuels, not on ending fossil fuel finance.
Countries that have ended public finance for fossil fuels can join BOGA as an Associate Member, but
not as a core member – that requires an end to new licensing. In parallel to BOGA, the UK government
is preparing to launch a joint statement on ending public finance for fossil fuels together with other
governments and public finance institutions at COP26.