How are we organized?
At the request of the Office of Special Envoy on Climate Change, the OGDC’s operations are being managed by the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) for an initial period of three years. Two key governing bodies have been established to ensure the OGDC’s goals are achieved – the Champions and the Signatories Committee. Members are drawn from Signatory Companies. The positions are voluntary and are not remunerated.
The champions
The CEOs of three Signatory Companies are appointed Champions for a term of three years before the role is rotated. New Champions will be elected by a majority of voting Signatories. The Champions’ principal role is to actively lead and pursue the aims of the Charter, fostering a spirit of collaboration amongst Signatories to pursue the Charter principles and maintain the momentum of the Charter.
The Signatories Committee
This is a larger group comprising of senior executives drawn from a selection of Signatory companies, with a balance of international oil companies and national oil companies to represent the diversity of the OGDC Signatories. The role of the Signatories Committee is to support the Champions and demonstrate leadership in actively progressing the goals of the Charter. The Signatories Committee is currently chaired by SOCAR.
The Secretariat
The Secretariat is made up of a dedicated team within the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) who will work with the Champions, Signatories Committee and Signatories, as well as the energy industry and civil society organizations, to coordinate and support the Charter’s mission.
Bjørn Otto Sverdrup was appointed chair of OGCI’s Executive Committee in 2021 and became head of the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter Secretariat in 2024. Sverdrup is also a non-voting member of the board of Climate Investment.
Sverdrup brings over 20 years’ energy industry leadership experience to OGCI. He has had a long career at Norwegian energy company Equinor, most recently as Senior Vice President for Corporate Sustainability.
Sverdrup is on the Climate Advisory Board of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. He is also a TED speaker, as well as a guest lecturer at Imperial College, Columbia and Harvard Business School.
As Managing Director for OGCI and OGDC, Julien is responsible for overall management of the strategy and execution, coordinating actions and commitments, managing relations with institutions and external stakeholders, developing external policy views and providing strategic direction to drive future development of both organizations.
Prior to OGCI, Julien headed Climate & Energy Services at EY where he helped companies set up and implement low-carbon strategies. Julien also worked at TotalEnergies where he coordinated climate change actions and at Aecom managing environmental liabilities for various industries.
Julien holds an Environmental Engineering degree from Agro ParisTech, an MSc in Energy and Climate Economics from Dauphine, an advanced degree in Climate Change Management and Natural Capital from Yale, and an Executive MBA from HEC in France.
As Director of the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter, Pietro oversees implementation of the OGDC’s goals, working with signatories and external partners to encourage collaboration to promote and enable net-zero solutions.
Pietro joined OGCI in 2018, leading member companies’ efforts to reduce methane emissions and managing the Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions Initiative. In his role he also engaged with key stakeholders and oil and gas companies across the methane space.
Prior to joining OGCI, Pietro worked for Italian utility Edison on their renewable and energy transition strategy. Pietro holds an MSc in Climate Change & Finance from Imperial College London Business School and an MSc in Civil Engineering from Imperial College London.
As Programme Manager, Eliz focuses on the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter supporting implementation of the OGDC’s goals and working closely with the signatories and external partners to drive forward net-zero solutions.
Previously, Eliz spent several years in OGCI’s Strategy & Policy team where she led several projects on topics related to methane emissions reduction, decarbonization pathways, net-zero strategies, reporting and natural climate solutions. Eliz holds an MSc in Climate Change Management and Finance from Imperial College London.