Cop: Oman updates NDC with more ambitious 2030 goal

Non-Opec oil and gas producer Oman has issued an update to its climate strategy, including a more ambitious emissions reduction target for 2030.

This update to its nationally determined contribution (NDC) sees a "significant" revision to its target for reducing GHG emissions by 2030, Oman said. The change is a 21pc reduction from a ‘business-as-usual' scenario by 2030, versus a 7pc reduction by 2030 in its previous NDC.

Of the targeted 21pc reduction, two-thirds are conditional on several factors, Oman said, including international climate financing, technology transfers, the activation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and support for capacity building programmes. The remaining third is committed, it said.

"The revision of NDC targets is a critical step in aligning a country's climate action plans with broader, long-term sustainability goals," Oman said, adding that the revision was designed to be in sync with, among other things, the country's October 2022 pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

But the sultanate's updated NDC has come with a shift in the baseline year from which reductions are calculated to 2021, from 2015 originally. Oman said this change was made to acknowledge changes in the economic landscape triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic which "had a noticeable impact on emissions across various sectors". Oman's CO2 emissions for 2015 and 2021 stood at 96mn t and 90mn t, respectively, its latest NDC shows.

Its oil and gas sector contributed 22.9mn t/CO2 equivalent (CO2e) in 2021, around 26pc of total emissions. Using 2021 as the baseline year, Oman envisages a 17pc reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 versus the business-as-usual scenario, and an 88pc reduction in emissions against the same scenario by 2050. It plans to cut emissions through initiatives that include, among other things, carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technologies and plans to power oil and gas projects with renewables.

Other efforts to decarbonise include plans to build a number of utility-scale solar and wind renewable power projects to help deliver its goal of producing at least 20pc of its electricity from renewable sources by 2027. The sultanate has also been actively working on developing a green hydrogen industry and has already signed several hydrogen and ammonia production and offtake agreements with foreign investors.

Oman is located "in a region highly vulnerable to climate change" and future increases in temperature are "a cause for concern" the country said. The latest AR6 report from the IPCC projected that under the high-emissions scenario of global warming, average temperatures in the sultanate could rise by 4-5°C by the end of the century, versus a 1995-2014 reference period.

"This temperature increase will have far-reaching impacts on the environment, including increased water scarcity and decreased crop yields," Oman said. "The temperature increase will also significantly impact human health and well-being."

By Nader Itayim