Methodology for the 2023 Oil and Gas Benchmark

The clock is ticking. The IPCC 2022 report shows that global warming, reaching 1.5°C in the near term, will cause unavoidable increases in climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans. Without urgent action to combat climate change and reduce global emissions, the world will experience more extreme weather events, rise in sea levels and negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems and oceans, affecting billions of people in both current and future generations.

Global emissions are dominated by industries such as the energy sector (oil and gas, electric utilities), transport, manufacturing, chemicals, agriculture all of which play a vital role in decarbonising the way we produce, manufacture and consume. The world’s most influential companies need to take their responsibility to lead this transformation. As part of this global decarbonisation, the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) aims to create an accountability mechanism that measures corporate progress against the goals of the Paris Agreement.

WBA published the first Climate and Energy Benchmark in the oil and gas sector in 2021. The second iteration, to be published in Q2 2023 will assess the same 100 companies using the ACT Oil and Gas methodology complemented by a social assessment. The social assessment consists of a WBA’s core social indicators and just transition indicators. This updated file provides an overview of these methodologies as well as an overview of the 100 companies included in the benchmark, and the principles used for selecting them.