Climate Commitment

Climate Commitment

Committed to our Clean Energy Future

Williams is answering the call for energy reliability, security, and affordability, both domestically and internationally, while setting near-term goals for decarbonization that promote accuracy, transparency, and accountability.

Climate Commitment

As the first North American midstream company to announce comprehensive and actionable climate targets back in 2020, Williams remains committed to addressing climate change in a pragmatic and economically feasible manner to successfully leverage our natural gas-focused business to reduce emissions and build a clean energy economy.

The demand for low-emissions natural gas is growing as states, power generators, LNG off takers and others are setting decarbonization goals. We have placed a heightened emphasis on methane emissions, as evidenced by our inclusion of an absolute methane reduction target as part of our compensation program and our Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0) membership, due to its elevated short-term impact and actionability through work practices and equipment modernization.

During our 2024 Analyst Day, Williams announced the progression of our near-term climate commitment to a 30% intensity-based carbon reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2018 levels by 2028. This carbon intensity goal – measured as metric tonnes CO2e per energy throughput – demonstrates alignment with customer and shareholder interests to grow the business as we decarbonize our operations and was informed by guidance and methodology from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). In addition to our near-term climate commitment, we aspire to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. We are investing in innovative technologies to grow our clean energy business and promote our enterprise goals, while also acknowledging that enhanced regulatory certainty, permitting reform, technological breakthroughs, and ultimately consumer demand, among other external factors, will also influence our progress.

OGMP 2.0 Membership

Additionally, as a part of joining OGMP 2.0 in 2023, Williams committed to develop additional emissions monitoring and measurement capabilities, report methane emissions on an operational and equity basis, and set a methane reduction target. Our OGMP 2.0 methane target is to achieve a Scope 1 methane intensity of 0.0375% methane emitted per unit of methane throughput by 2028.

Stakeholder Engagement

Williams is committed to stakeholder engagement on operational, environmental and safety issues. We define stakeholder engagement as activities specifically conducted to inform and gain input from parties about Williams’ expansion projects, operational activities or other notable business activities including environmental issues. Our customers often have their own climate commitments, and Williams is proud to partner with them to show how our growth projects and emission reduction program projects can help them achieve their emissions reductions goals. We maintain an open dialogue with shareholders and regularly engage with our investors’ ESG groups and analysts through weekly investor calls and meetings, Annual Meeting of Stockholders, frequent investor updates, in-person and virtual investor conferences and conference calls. Williams also requires that all contractors working on our assets in the field receive environmental training. Each construction project is issued an environmental training component to manage quality assurance of environmental compliance with mitigation measures and other applicable regulatory requirements.

Progress Today

To guide and amplify our emissions reduction efforts towards scalable, efficient projects and work practices, Williams established the Emissions Reduction Technical Committee in 2023. The committee evaluates proposed emissions reduction opportunities across Williams for impact, feasibility and other benefits such as compliance alignment and reliability. We are empowering the whole business to identify and execute opportunities to optimize operations and strategically modernize our assets.

Williams targets methane emissions through the Emissions Reduction Program, a multi-year investment project that aims to considerably reduce NOX and methane emissions from Transco and Northwest Pipeline (NWP) compressor stations. Executing our Emission Reduction Program through 2030 will allow us to modernize our compression while reducing the risk from the evolving regulatory landscape. We also continue to proactively minimize emissions from transmission pipeline blowdowns by maintaining a pipeline maintenance emissions reduction work group.

We also perform preventive maintenance on our assets like installing emissions reduction equipment and emission control devices, conducting leak detection and repair (LDAR) events, replacing pneumatic devices, and implementing recompression measures.

Progress made to reduce GHG and methane emissions intensity by Williams’ operations, customers and suppliers can be captured by our NextGen Gas program using enhanced measurement practices and monitoring technologies. Our industry leading NextGen Gas program enables the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (QMRV) of the entire natural gas value chain from production through gathering and transmission, delivering the capability to measure emissions intensity for methane and CO2e from well-head to market. In addition, in 2023, Williams began an effort with Context Labs to add modernized capabilities to our overall GHG data collection, calculation and reporting program, including updating our GHG reporting dashboard.

Future Innovations and Technologies

We are looking forward to and anticipating future innovations and technologies that we can use on our key energy networks to build a clean energy economy. 

Williams’ New Energy Ventures is a business development group focused on advancing innovative technologies, markets and business models to grow our clean energy business and promote emissions reductions. The NEV verticals include:

  • NextGen Gas & Low-Carbon Products (i.e., Renewable Natural Gas)
  • Solar + Battery
  • Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration
  • Hydrogen
  • Clean Energy Hubs

Within the NEV group, the Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) program makes investments in early-stage innovative technologies that help catalyze progress in evolving energy markets. Our strategic direct investments and partnership funds demonstrate our commitment to innovation by fostering technology at the forefront of the energy transition.

We also participate in a number of collaboration initiatives to explore clean energy, including the Wyoming Energy Authority’s Hydrogen Pilot Project, serving as a founding member of the Clean Hydrogen Future Coalition, participating in the Department of Energy’s CarbonSAFE and Regional Hydrogen Hub Initiatives and joining together with industry peers in a first-of-its-kind initiative to attract energy technology startups to the Tulsa region. More information on these initiatives, along with others that Williams is a part of, can be found in our Sustainability Report.