Shell doesn’t intend to “get into an arms race” with peer supermajor BP over goals to reduce its carbon footprint, Maarten Wetselaar, Shell’s Integrated Gas & New Energies Director, told The Times a week after BP joined the pack of oil majors that have set carbon-reducing goals.
In December 2018, in an industry first, Shell said that it plans to set short-term targets for reducing the net carbon footprint of the energy products it sells, and to link those targets with executive remuneration.
The world needs to get to the point at which it will no longer add to the stock of greenhouse gases, and reducing emissions to net zero “is the only way to go,” Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said this summer, calling on businesses to work together to move faster in addressing climate change.
However, Shell’s core business is and will continue to be oil and gas for the foreseeable future, van Beurden has said.
Last year, Shell has also set short-term targets for reducing the net carbon footprint of the energy products it sells.
Shell has significant commitments to reduce its carbon footprint, although BP’s pledges include “a broader set of announcements,” Shell’s Wetselaar told The Times.
Last week, BP said it would aim to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, but it drew criticism over the lack of specifics about how it would achieve its goal.
Commenting on BP’s target, Shell’s Wetselaar told The Times:
“Once we understand them we will think about them but at the moment I don’t think we need to get into an arms race of CO2 targets — it’s much more important we execute our strategy to bring down our net carbon footprint.”
BP has yet to set binding short-term targets to cut its carbon footprint—something that the Anglo-Dutch firm has already done, Shell’s executive noted.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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