Celebrated each year on 22 April, Earth Day calls for global environmental action. This year's theme is 'Restore our earth' with participants urged to focus on how we can reduce environmental impacts on our planet and repair the world's ecosystem.
An SDG Roadmap for the oil and gas sector
Ecosystems support all life on earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet and the people living on it. This interconnection has been brought into stark relief by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Launched this week, Accelerating action: An SDG Roadmap for the oil and gas sector (Roadmap), developed by Ipieca with WBCSD, sets out SDG impact pathways across three interdependent systemic themes of climate, nature and people, identifying how Ipieca and companies in the sector can work towards a low-emissions future while contributing to a healthier and more prosperous world.
In the Roadmap's Nature section, 'resources management' and 'biodiversity, land and water stewardship' impact pathways provide short-, medium- and long-term actions the sector can take to embed circularity, nature-positive and natural capital concepts into operations to conserve and restore ecosystems and support a healthier planet.
Advancing protection of the natural environment
As part of Ipieca's 2021-2024 strategy, Ipieca has developed a thematic strategy for nature, which will enable Ipieca members to advance protection of the natural environment, minimise and mitigate risks and impacts from operations and products.
Ipieca has developed approximately 70 publications (good practice guides, awareness briefings, case studies and fact sheets) on environmental management, promoting responsible and sustainable operations across the sector. Ipieca has also provided inputs to industry guidance and tools related to the mitigation hierarchy which provides advice on how to avoid, minimize, restore and offset impacts throughout the lifecycle of a project.
Building back better
The interdependence of environmental and social issues has become more prominent. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the connection between biodiversity, human impacts on the natural environment and human health. In partnership with UNEP-WCMC, we recently published the Biodiversity and ecosystem services horizon scanning report 2021, which outlines opportunities for the industry to contribute to global conversation goals.