** The world needs to phase out some fossil fuels — while employing carbon capture technology — to reach net zero climate targets by mid-century, US climate envoy John Kerry said, even as negotiators haggled over the best approach.
** Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to raise share buybacks 14% as the oil giant accelerates crude production in the US Permian Basin, boosted by its $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources Co.
** Banks will eventually start to impose higher interest rates on farmers and rural businesses that aren’t achieving satisfactory greenhouse gas reductions, a senior Rabobank executive predicts.
** The U.S. will release guidance for how hydrogen producers can secure billions of dollars of subsidies embedded in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act sometime this year after the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, U.S. energy advisor John Podesta told Reuters on Wednesday.
** American Airlines signed a deal with a Bill Gates-backed climate startup to store CO2 underground. Graphite Inc. is a startup that will move 10,000 tons of climate-harming CO2 underground in the company’s first commercial deployment.
** U.S. utility company Duke Energy said on Wednesday it had disconnected large-scale batteries made by Chinese company CATL from North Carolina Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune after lawmakers and experts raised concerns about the battery supplier’s close links to China’s ruling Communist Party.
World
** An Emirati oil executive has landed in hot water after claiming that there’s “no science” behind phasing out fossil fuels to keep global temperatures from creeping above 1.5 degrees Celsius, an internationally agreed-upon climate benchmark.
** Don’t trust the oil and gas industry to report their actual carbon pollution, said former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who added that the man leading the United Nations climate talks runs one of the “dirtiest” oil companies out there.
** Australia’s Woodside Energy and Santos said on Thursday they were in preliminary talks to create an A$80 billion ($52 billion) global oil and gas giant, as consolidation among international energy firms intensifies.
** Guyana said it’s intensifying security measures and engaging the US military to help it protect the oil-rich region of Essequibo, describing Venezuela’s intentions to grant oil exploration licenses in the area as a threat to its territorial integrity.
** Japan has officially inaugurated the world’s biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor. The reactor, dubbed JT-60SA, represents the latest testbed for a potentially transformative source of renewable energy harvested from atoms fusing together under immense pressure and incredibly high temperatures — without risking a nuclear meltdown.
** Banks will eventually start to impose higher interest rates on farmers and rural businesses that aren’t achieving satisfactory greenhouse gas reductions, a senior Rabobank executive predicts.
** Chevron Corp. followed rival Exxon Mobil Corp. in raising planned capital spending as the biggest US oil explorers seek to increase long-term crude production.