Welcome to Zero. I'm Akshatrati. This week, fugitive emissions, big oils, big bet and sunk costs.

While reporting on climate issues, it's impossible to ignore the oil industry.

While the industry's denial of climate change has undoubtedly slowed down action to cut emissions,

it's crucial to have the industry be a part of the solution because we are on a deadline.

One oil company that wants to be a part of that solution is Occidental Petroleum,

better known as Oxy. And since 2016, it has been led by Vicki Hollab, who is responsible for setting

the first science-based climate target for a U.S. oil company. Typically, when oil companies

have set climate targets, it has meant a push for renewables,

and maybe even a promise to cut oil production in the future. BP is building wind turbines,

Shell is investing heavily in hydrogen, and Total is pouring money into lithium-ion batteries.

Vicky and Oxy are making a different bet.

I think that anybody who says that we can go 100% renewable today

is speaking from emotion and passion and not logic.

Vicky sees oil and gas consumption rising well into the future

and wants to meet Oxy's climate targets by capturing the emissions

from the fossil fuels it extracts. What Oxy wants to sell, as unbelievable as it might sound,

is net zero oil. If that sounds like greenwashing, your instinct is right, because greenwashing

is rife in the oil industry. And that is exactly

why the bar is high for any oil company now saying they want to go green. Given the oil industry's

heft in the global economy, it's important to hear from those in the seats of power about how

they are thinking of acting on the climate crisis. And it is rare to be able to sit down with someone like Wiki,

who leads one of the world's biggest oil companies

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