Legal Challenges Arising From Climate Change Impacts on the Oil and Gas Industry and Legal Solutions to Mitigate Negative Effects in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Climate change is one of the greatest contemporary environmental threats affecting the oil and gas industry.Extreme weather events, such as rising temperatures, tidal changes, and thermal expansion, lead to frequent heavy rainfall, increased storm occurrences, and regular flooding, which significantly impact the oil and gas industry (Adelekan, 2010;Adesola, 2014;Akinwale, 2010).These events impose a heavy burden on the industry, hindering adaptation strategies and negatively impacting the oil and gas-dependent economies of some countries (Hitz, 2004;Udie, 2018).On the other hand, it should be noted that the industry can be divided into upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors.The upstream sector includes five main stages: exploration (searching for oil and gas) (Fetisov, 2023), evaluation (feasibility study of wells or fields and their commercial production potential) (Barkindo, 2022), development planning, oil and gas recovery, and decommissioning (abandoning or closing fields) (Dvoynikov, 2022).The midstream sector involves the processing and transportation of produced oil products to refineries (for crude oil) and gas plants for refining, processing, compression, and various technical processes.Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions occur across different phases and sectors of the oil and gas industry.In 2019 alone, fuel combustion led to 33,622 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions globally (IEA, 2021).Oil and gas consumption accounted for 55.4% of this figure, while coal accounted for 44%, and even the end-use phase, which requires serious intervention, may warrant more immediate regulatory attention compared to other areas contributing to increased emissions.This paper focuses on the upstream sector in comparison to the downstream sector, which contributes more to emissions and is, therefore, more heavily impacted by climate change.Identifying the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the upstream sector and addressing them through effective legal interventions is essential (Benjamin, 2024).In the United States alone, upstream industries account for 20 to 21 million tons of CO2 equivalent in annual greenhouse gas emissions.By mid-2020, satellite