NEW YORK (Reuters) – The biggest U.S. oil and gas trade association on Thursday released new industry guidelines for energy companies to track and report greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to address the sector’s carbon footprint.
The American Petroleum Institute, which includes Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, said the framework aims to standardize the way companies log emissions, including flared natural gas, and prompts them to voluntarily disclose those details publicly.
“The template aims to provide a consistent and uniform set of core GHG (greenhouse gases) indicators to enable greater comparability in climate-related reporting,” API said in a statement.
API’s guidelines follow plans by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to introduce new climate-mitigating rules as it steps up environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures.
The API in March said it would endorse carbon-price policy, easing its previous resistance to regulatory action on climate change amid a shift in the oil industry’s strategy on the issue and the new U.S. presidency. [L1N2LN2H0]
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Jan Harvey)
