NORWAY's Equinor unveiled a raft of climate commitments yesterday after beating analyst expectations. in the final quarter.

Profit before tax at the stateowned firm fell to $3.5bn (£2.7bn), down from $4.4bn for the same period last year, but ahead of forecasts of $3.3bn.

The firm's suite of new measures to tackle its fossil fuel footprint includes a commitment to reduce carbon intensity from all emissions connected to the company by 50 per cent by 2050.

This means that by that date each unit of energy produced will, on average, have less than half of the emissions compared to today.

The ambition even includes scope three emissions, those created by customers in Equinor's value chain. According to the company, these account for 85 per cent of all emissions.

The move is a considerable volteface for chief executive Eldar Saetre, who last year said "scope three is not my responsibility".

The firm also said that by 2030 all of its operations around the world would be carbon neutral.

Equinor, which used to be called Statoil, will also grow its renewable capacity to four to six gigawatts by 2026, roughly 10 times what it is today, with aims to expand to 12 to 16 gigawatts by 2035.

Saetre said: "We will continue addressing our own emissions in line with the emitter pays [rule]. We can and will do much more."

(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper