Majors urged to lead energy transition

IOCs would benefit from taking a prominent role in the transition and face capital flight if they do not, says former UNFCC leader

International oil companies (IOCs) face a major challenge from investors pulling out of fossil fuel-related businesses but are also in a unique position to reshape public perceptions and become trusted custodians of the world's energy resources, a leading force behind the COP 21 Paris Agreement told the SPE Offshore Europe 2019 conference. In the past four years over 1,000 institutions have together pledged to divest more than $6tn from fossil fuels, an 11,200pc increase over the previous period, says Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2010 to 2016. "This capital drought is impacting IOCs more than NOCs," says the former Co