Oil companies are committed to significantly reducing fossil fuels by 2050

At UN climate talks, countries and oil companies have pledged to make significant progress in fighting global warming as part of a major new energy commitment.

Saudi Aramco is one of 50 oil and gas companies that have pledged to stop increasing emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

However, this only covers emissions from production, not from the burning of fossil fuels itself, notes the BBC.

About 100 countries have also pledged to triple the world's use of renewable energy by 2030.

However, there will be no penalties for missing the targets and the pledges are not binding.

And not all commitments seem new. Many of the oil companies that have made this commitment have already announced that they will reduce their emissions to zero.

They also allow companies to increase oil and gas production in the short term, as long as it is reduced by 2050.

The pledge says that tripling renewable energy will help phase out fossil fuels from the world's energy system by 2050 at the latest.

Addressing summit participants, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber said the new pledge "includes more countries and more companies from more sectors than ever before, all of them adhering to our North Star of 1, 5C".

World leaders agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to this value.

Burning vast amounts of oil, gas and coal is driving climate change, but leaders still can't agree on how quickly the world should stop using them.

Sultan al-Jaber called Saturday's commitment "a great first step."

"While many national oil companies have for the first time adopted goals of net zero consumption by 2050, I know that they and others can and must do more," he said. "We need the whole industry to keep 1.5 degrees within reach and set even stronger decarbonisation ambitions."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the talks that the meeting "must commit countries to triple renewable energy capacity, double energy efficiency and provide clean energy for all by 2030."

He added that the world must "get off fossil fuels" in time to keep global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

The UAE says the Decarbonisation Charter will accelerate climate action as oil and gas companies, which account for 40% of global emissions, pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Achieving net zero means stopping the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

The 50 companies, which include the state-owned UAE Oil Company, have also committed to almost completely stop emitting planet-warming methane from oil and gas extraction by 2030.

The International Energy Agency has already said that if the world starts extracting more oil and gas, it will fail to meet its climate protection commitments, including limiting temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C.

"A rapid acceleration of clean energy production is needed, and we have called for a tripling of renewables. But that is only half the solution," said Tina Stieghe, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, one of the most vulnerable of the climate change countries.

"The promise cannot be green for countries that are simultaneously expanding fossil fuel production," she adds.

The UAE's chairmanship of the COP28 negotiations has drawn criticism as the country is among the world's 10 largest oil and gas producers and summit chairman Sultan al-Jaber also heads the giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc ).

Pope Francis said the ecological transition to save the world can be made by embracing renewable energy, "eliminating fossil fuels and fostering a lifestyle that is less dependent."

The pontiff was unable to attend the Dubai summit in person due to illness, so his speech was read by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin. /BGNES