Science & Technology

How to Realistically Decarbonize the Oil and Gas Industry | Bjørn Otto Sverdrup | TED Countdown

Bjørn Otto Sverdrup leads the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OCGI), which gathers the CEOs of twelve of the world’s largest oil and gas companies around an ambitious goal: to get one of the leading contributors to climate change to drastically lower their own carbon emissions. He describes a possible path for the industry to…

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Bjørn Otto Sverdrup leads the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OCGI), which gathers the CEOs of twelve of the world’s largest oil and gas companies around an ambitious goal: to get one of the leading contributors to climate change to drastically lower their own carbon emissions. He describes a possible path for the industry to pivot to net-zero operations, reimagining the role it could play in helping decarbonize the economy and igniting changes in how we consume energy. (Followed by a Q&A with Countdown cofounder Lindsay Levin)

Countdown is TED’s global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The goal: to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in the race to a zero-carbon world. Get involved at

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53 Comments

  1. Ken Wennemar

    March 3, 2022 at 4:19 pm

    Rich guy bragging about how he and his buddies can change the world IF WE PAY them more money to sit and talk about change while everyone else suffer.

    • Ricky Robyn

      March 3, 2022 at 4:38 pm

      Well keep funneling demand to three countries for Capitol monopolized market “fossil fuels” under the “climate scam” just because in usa label it harmful, ie russia, Iran, Iraq, as we see now demand never changes, the world still turns and needs it!! Its “harmful to produce it in usa, yet not harmful on the few countries we fund and increased our full supply from now this past 14 months!! LIESSSS!! GREED and gouging has graduated these TYRANTS and enslaving demons from millionaires to billionaires, to trillionaires and now fueling soon mass famine, homelessness, etc etc etc “cap and trade” lies and dissected deeply is if I put my hand on a red hot burner in usa and then go to russia and put my hand on a red hot burner hmmmmm what I am not going to burn my hand? According to these mindless zombie demons lying thatis how it works!!! Now pushing the biggest crisis soon of nuclear war with russia! Yep makes sense to meee👏👏👏👏

  2. JogBird

    March 3, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    Whats next, a talk from tobacco companies on how we can end the smoking epidemic

  3. Britton Price

    March 3, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    Why is carbon dioxide suddenly bad? All life on this planet needs carbon to exist. These people are insane.

    • Sam Watson

      March 3, 2022 at 4:31 pm

      Are you deliberately being dense? CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in our atmosphere raising the average global temperature.

    • Vesa Wuoristo

      March 3, 2022 at 4:38 pm

      It is about a balance, currently out of balance

    • Alexander Kale

      March 3, 2022 at 6:39 pm

      @Vesa Wuoristo Current plantlife has developed in an atmosphere carrying about 600 ppm Carbon Dioxide, or 200 ore than we currently have. So you are right about the “out of balance” part, just not in the way you think…

  4. : Turbo-Scuba: Master.

    March 3, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    Give everyone metal zirconium alloy.
    Put water and zirconium alloy together and make hydrogen gas… All engines will run on it.
    Cleanest most abundant fuel in galaxy.

    • : Turbo-Scuba: Master.

      March 3, 2022 at 4:28 pm

      Facts

    • : Turbo-Scuba: Master.

      March 3, 2022 at 4:28 pm

      👍😁✅🎯

    • Alexander Kale

      March 3, 2022 at 6:38 pm

      Where is the energy going to come from?

    • : Turbo-Scuba: Master.

      March 3, 2022 at 7:46 pm

      @Alexander Kale the energy is stored in water and metal. The process release energy when the two come together by chemical reactions which split chemical bonds.

  5. v

    March 3, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    Ad or not, we still need fossil fuel use to go to zero. Why not start with russian gas?

  6. Phatxual

    March 3, 2022 at 4:37 pm

    Well at least they’re finally coming around I guess? Considering the Oil & Gas industry is one of the most archaic, and hardest/slowest industry’s to innovate in.
    But all things considered, that’s also where the big bucks are made. Meaning I’m sure they can afford to change themselves without their customers having to suffer. Should only require a bit less greed, a bit more self-preservation, and maybe some guidance from enviromental intellectuals lol

    • Phatxual

      March 3, 2022 at 4:59 pm

      @мизя As a Canadian, why would I be using any ‘Russian sources’ in the first place? Lol not to mention, there is other people that actually get paid to make political change..
      It’s an unfortunate circumstance but if you’re watching things on YouTube right now, odds are you’re simply just a witness to this war as well

    • The peaks and the troughs

      March 3, 2022 at 5:05 pm

      @мизя *SPAM

  7. ParrotYee

    March 3, 2022 at 4:40 pm

    Volkswagen will advertise a “fully” electric vehicle but will still be built with fossil fuelled machines.

    • cc Rider

      March 3, 2022 at 5:44 pm

      I guess we should just snap our fingers for instant results?

    • Alexander Kale

      March 3, 2022 at 6:35 pm

      How else are you going to build a carbon-free industry, if not by using the things your carbon burning industry provides?

  8. мизя

    March 3, 2022 at 4:42 pm

    ⚠️THE WAR IS GOING ON⚠️
    Please share this on any Russian sources:
    СЕЙЧАС ВАЖНАЯ ИНФОРМАЦИЯ:

    Я и все люди в мире которые хотят окончания войны просим вас об этом:
    Люди, надежда сейчас на Россиян. Сопротивление сильнее всего, когда оно идёт изнутри. Если вы можете, прошу, выходите на улицу, делайте хоть что либо, это может спасти жизни!
    Я знаю что сейчас вам тяжело как никогда. Экономика на голову рушется. И за неправильные слова у вас могут отнять работу, учёбу или свободу. Но если война продолжится, то они уже ничего не будут значить. Так что, пожалуйста, хотя бы расспростроняйте информацию, держать людей в неведении – это преступление против людских прав. Если вы сейчас не заговорите, то потом уже будет позно. Распростроняйте информацию. Прошу вас как обычный человек который страдает от войны.
    Ради будущего всех нас.
    Не молчите.
    Не верьте слепо источникам, даже мне. Старайтесь докопаться до истины своими же усилиями. Мир в ваших руках.

    Russian people don’t have a clue about what’s actually going on. It’s a call for them to spread the information by any risks and by any possible ways. We need resistance from within to defeat Putler. I beg you, please share this!

    • The peaks and the troughs

      March 3, 2022 at 4:44 pm

      Who is “Putler” ?

  9. greenlaw

    March 3, 2022 at 4:53 pm

    If circular economy is the end, these measures are important to the employees of these industries

    • greenlaw

      March 3, 2022 at 7:39 pm

      @The peaks and the troughs yess

    • The peaks and the troughs

      March 3, 2022 at 8:13 pm

      @greenlaw Sorry for my grammar policing. Lol. Hope you are well and happy, have yourself a nice day.

    • greenlaw

      March 3, 2022 at 8:34 pm

      @The peaks and the troughs why? What is right is right

    • The peaks and the troughs

      March 3, 2022 at 10:52 pm

      @greenlaw Your comment is correctly edited. Are we cool ?

    • greenlaw

      March 4, 2022 at 12:44 am

      @The peaks and the troughs we always were. English is not my mother language and i do not know if i was aggresive during this xchange

  10. APEX PREDATOR 101

    March 3, 2022 at 5:25 pm

    PIVOT to renewables & nuclear power oil companies. Doesn’t matter where the 💵 comes from… as long as ur collecting right?

    • cc Rider

      March 3, 2022 at 5:45 pm

      We dont need nuclear. Try again.

    • APEX PREDATOR 101

      March 3, 2022 at 7:47 pm

      @cc Rider U must be an ignorant 🐜 or a paid shill. READ about the scale of climate change & about thorium, nuclear reactors (e.g. LFTR). Nuclear is vastly SUPERIOR to any renewables or fossil fuel in ⚡ output.

  11. Ivan

    March 3, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    Say about Ukrainian

  12. Bokkos

    March 3, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    And yet report after study has demonstrated that every promise made by the O&G sector to reduce emissions, invest in green tech, and stop exploration has just been cover for further development, emissions, and exploration. This is greenwashing of the highest order, and anyone who believe this is a mark.

  13. What The Function

    March 3, 2022 at 5:44 pm

    Won’t work. There is not incentive feedback loop. The plan to reduce has to be more powerful than easy money.

  14. Little Townie

    March 3, 2022 at 6:51 pm

    Blah, Blah, Blah

  15. EyE WondeR

    March 3, 2022 at 7:54 pm

    Home biogas generators Creating power for your home and meal worms eating your plastic waste would prevent you from having to take your trash to the road…
    And reduce your need for infrastructure.

  16. EyE WondeR

    March 3, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    Sterling hot air engines may not work well for individual consumer cars but they would be fantastic for city busses.
    Low maintenance, easy construction, Reliable high efficiency.

  17. EyE WondeR

    March 3, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    Instead of using a heat exchanger outside for your air conditioner, you could put that heat into a pre heating water tank for your hot water heater.

  18. EyE WondeR

    March 3, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    Geothermal heating and cooling can be done very practically

  19. David Devine

    March 3, 2022 at 8:28 pm

    And which industries have been dragging their feet as much as they can, continuing to do so with a shill like this?

  20. Joz Ra

    March 3, 2022 at 8:30 pm

    Either teds r getting worse or I just grew up.

  21. Jan Novotný

    March 3, 2022 at 8:46 pm

    First-class greenwashing this is, a further example of why it takes so damn Long to decarbonise our energy mix. Poor oil companies can’t do much for the climate, probably because all the subsidies they received were spent on lobbying and propaganda…

  22. Cr0uch1ng71g3r

    March 3, 2022 at 9:40 pm

    I’m starting to think we need to start a war against fossil fuel companies.. We managed it against Russia, why not the planetary destroyers. We just don’t get the urgency..

  23. Cleisthenes

    March 3, 2022 at 11:00 pm

    While the US is entangled with European crises, China will be busy moving into the future. Semiconductors, automation, AI, and cheap/secure/reliable energy to power it all.

  24. jayanto choudhury

    March 4, 2022 at 12:33 am

    The speaker shared a well articulated road map to reducing carbon emissions, with different target levels of 1,4 and 20 gigatons. He shared the changing perception of oil and gas companies who now see themselves as ‘energy’ companies with the example of his own company investing in renewables – wind power. The fiscal incentives and disincentives needed to achieve this were indicated in the cost differential of reducing emissions. Today many FIs often under pressure from shareholders are withdrawing investments from companies engaged in producing and supplying fossil fuels. Fiscal measures would only encourage this. The Paris Agreement has provided a framework and objectives to achieve desired carbon emission goals. These can be reached only if the process of reducing carbon emissions does not severely dislocate economic activity. In developing countries where huge populations cause a large energy footprint, but per capita energy consumption/carbon emission is far lower than the developing world. The West is profligate in energy use to sustain a standard of living far above levels the world has ever known and is simply not sustainable if primary energy sources remain fossil fuels. A mainstay of the Industrial Revolutions since the 18th century were based on discovery of new energy sources and technology like the steam engine and electric power. Unless the developed world now is fully committed to using its superior resources and scientific capacity to help achieve a worldwide Energy Revolution in this century, the Paris Agreement will remain just a piece of paper. It is unrealistic to demand that the developing world reduce carbon emissions without offering alternative technologies and viable energy sources.

  25. atenas80525

    March 4, 2022 at 1:54 am

    “Green” energy is only green in emissions – creation requires massive mining like we have never seen and end of life will result in millions of tons of hazardous waste and millions of yards of landfills needed
    Not to mention it is not and will not be an on-demand system that modern society requires

  26. atenas80525

    March 4, 2022 at 1:55 am

    It will be interesting to see what all the experts “think” after the next year of energy crisis due to overreliance on electrification

  27. atenas80525

    March 4, 2022 at 1:56 am

    Why don’t all the developed nations shift their manufacturing back home to use “clean” energy instead of offshoring their iPhone production to China, child slave labor and coal-powered electricity?

  28. atenas80525

    March 4, 2022 at 1:57 am

    Any energy policy or initiative needs 3 aspects:
    Economy
    Ecology
    National Security

  29. atenas80525

    March 4, 2022 at 1:57 am

    Norway? Get 20% of their GDP from oil and gas industry and are set to be the biggest winner of the Russia-Ukraine invasion due to LNG exports

  30. atenas80525

    March 4, 2022 at 1:59 am

    It is readily evident that no nation on earth is even remotely close to being prepared for a future without fossil fuels

  31. mark schuette

    March 4, 2022 at 3:33 am

    the only way to get these ideas moving and into practice is thru the motivation of a carbon tax (and a wealth tax) !! capitalism has the tool of taxes to correct itself.

  32. Greg Gary

    March 4, 2022 at 7:45 am

    It’s going to be difficult but there are signs of hope – O&G investment IS falling, which means more expensive Gas which means more EVs bought which reduced Oil demand & thus lower production.

    Still, the average car age is around 11 years & we are looking at least 2 cycles (probably more) to retire all the gas cars. That’s too long.

    there is still no “Volkswagen” of the EV market – a truly affordable EV – not to mention issues still surrounding plug ins.

    It’s going to happen but to do it in time is going to take more incentives that we have now.

  33. Studio Skies And Water

    March 4, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    goooooooooo vegaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnn

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