External collaboration and engagement

External engagement is important to understanding the issues and challenges relating to climate and the evolution of policy development. Current actions include: 

• Taking part in global legislation and regulation development. 

• Engaging with stakeholders, including investors, on climate-related risks. 

• Working within industry groups to advance sector-wide net-zero solutions.

Supporting industry dialogue

We actively work with different organizations and associations around the world to enhance our understanding of the issues and trends facing our industry and company. The benefits we receive from trade and industry associations range from best practice sharing to technical standard setting and issue advocacy. We do not always agree with all positions taken by the organizations that we work with. For example, we may not always be fully aligned with the positions they take on climate change or regulatory reform. In these cases, we make our views known and seek to influence their policy positions. We have strong governance around our association activities and annually report on trade association memberships with dues more than $50,000. 

We are members or sponsors of external groups that support our efforts to manage climate-related risks.  

Ipieca  established its Climate Change Working Group in 1988. Since then, the group has monitored climate science and policy discussions, engaging with international governmental bodies and other stakeholders. It is not an advocacy body and does not engage in lobbying on climate or other issues.  

Ipieca participates in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and provides Ipieca members with reliable and timely information about these and other international processes dealing with climate change. 

We are sponsors of the MIT — Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change which supports efforts to: 

• Improve knowledge of interactions among human and natural Earth systems, with a focus on climate and energy, and of the forces that drive global change. 

• Prepare quantitative analyses of global change risk and its social and environmental consequences. 

• Provide independent assessments of potential responses to global risks, through emissions mitigation and anticipatory adaptation, contributing to improved understanding of these issues among other analysis groups, policymaking communities and the public. 

• Augment the pool of people needed for work in this area by the education of graduate and undergraduate students in relevant disciplines of economic and Earth science analysis and methods of policy assessment. 

An interdisciplinary team of natural scientists, social scientists and policy analysts supports this mission, with their efforts coordinated through the maintenance and application of a set of analytical frameworks that integrate the various components of global system change and potential policy response.  

We are also provided data from S&P Global on clean energy research and its implications for policy. They provide a wide range of research products to ensure that members are up to date with current developments around the world. 

Additionally, we have worked with the following groups: 

• International Oil and Gas Producers Association (IOGP). 

• Socially responsible investors (SRIs). 

• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 

Our engagement with investors has focused on climate-related risks in many one-on-one meetings and periodic conferences, such as with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. We have also engaged on climate-related issues and sustainability risks with institutions such as JP Morgan, Citi, Moody’s, Fitch and S&P.

Cross-sector collaboration 

External engagement and collaboration remain an area of focus for us because the energy transition will require joint efforts to achieve meaningful emissions reductions and evolve policy solutions. In 2023, we participated in or had membership in the following: 

• World Bank Zero Routine Flaring by 2030: Initiative that aims to achieve consistency among efforts by governments, the oil and gas sector and development institutions to address routine flaring. 

• The Environmental Partnership: Coalition of more than 100 oil and natural gas companies working to improve methane emissions management. 

• E&P Net-Zero Principles Roundtable: Facilitated by Ceres, a small group of financial sector stakeholders, E&P oil and gas companies and NGOs, seeking to define what it means to be a Paris-aligned E&P company. 

• Net-Zero Business Alliance: Initiative from the Bipartisan Policy Center to bring together business leaders and frame an affirmative and pragmatic approach in the climate solutions debate and subsequently engage with governments (as a group and directly) to advance an aggressive climate strategy that is grounded in engineering, commercial and economic realities.  

• Net-Zero Company Benchmark: Engaging with Climate Action 100+ twice each year to gather feedback to strengthen our approach to managing climate-related risk. 

• Natural Gas Initiative: Program led by Stanford University researchers with participation from industry, government, intergovernmental organizations and foundations. Initiative aims to increase public access to information about the accuracy of methane detection and quantification technologies. 

• Pathways Alliance: Program that includes Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) as well as the Pathways Alliance Inc., which is an alliance of Canada’s top oil sands operators working toward emissions reductions through CCS. ConocoPhillips was one of COSIA’s founding members. 

• International Emissions Trading Association (IETA): Nonprofit business organization created in 1999 to establish a functional international framework for trading GHG emissions reductions. 

• Climate Leadership Council (CLC): International policy institute to promote a carbon dividends framework in the U.S. 

• Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC): Global voluntary partnership to share and expand the evidence base for effective carbon pricing policies.   

• National Petroleum Council: A federal advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. As an NPC member, our CEO chaired a study, conducted by over 200 stakeholders, that provided consensus recommendations to reduce GHG emissions from the U.S. natural gas supply chain. 

• Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0: Globally recognized framework for methane emissions measurement and reporting.