Shell recently announced its ambition to tackle climate change, by focusing on limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5° Celsius. In fact, the oil major published its detailed steps to become a net-zero emissions energy business until 2050.
So as to achieve zero emissions, Shell will work following thee ways. By seeking to be net zero on all the emissions from the manufacture of all their products by 2050 at the latest will be the first step.
This ambition includes the emissions created by our operations and also those associated with the energy we consume. These are known as scope one and two emissions. But the bulk of the emissions are our customers’ emissions when they use our products, known as scope three emissions.
The second step will be to reduce the Net Carbon Footprint of their energy products, by selling more products with a lower carbon intensity, such as renewable power, biofuels and hydrogen.
In 2017 Shell’s ambition was to be in step with a society working towards a well-below 2° Celsius future. Today Shell’s ambition is to be in step with a society working towards a 1.5° Celsius future. So we have raised our Net Carbon Footprint ambition.
…the company continued.
Moreover, Shell added that its long-term ambitions is to drop the Net Carbon Footprint of the energy products we sell by 65% by 2050, instead of 50%. At the same time, its medium-term, ambition is to reduce it by 30% by 2035, instead of 20%.
As society moves towards its low-carbon future our customers will need to mitigate emissions caused by their energy use because they will need to reduce their own scope one and two emissions. But these are the same emissions that count as Shell’s scope three emissions. That is why such actions by our customers can help Shell become a net-zero emissions business.
Working close with its customers will be also a part of the plan. Addressing the emissions produced when the customers use Shell’s fuels will be an effort toward net-zero plan. That effort includes working with broad coalitions of businesses, governments and other parties, sector by sector, to identify and enable decarbonisation pathways for each sector.
Each sector will need to find its own way to achieve net-zero emissions but all sectors share the same three ways to make progress. Firstly, by being more energy efficient; secondly, by using lower-carbon energy products; and, thirdly, by storing away emissions that cannot be avoided, either through nature or using the technology that already exists to capture and store away CO2.
…Shell concluded.
