We want to sell our customers lower carbon solutions, but it’s not something that we can do overnight In an interview with Ethical Corporation in June, Mark Gainsborough, the head of Shell’s New Energies business, defended Shell's shift from a 50:50 split between oil and gas to greater reliance on lower-carbon gas as part of Shell's Net Zero Carbon plan to half its energy intensity by 2050. And he said carbon offsetting is in addition to measures the company is taking to cut its own emissions. Although a fraction of the $25bn Shell spends on investment in hydrocarbons, he said the company is investing $1bn-$2bn a year in fossil-fuel-free transport solutions such as electric vehicle charging, battery storage and hydrogen infrastructure as well as carbon capture and storage. This month directors of the European Investment Bank are discussing whether to sign off on draft new lending policies that would exclude "upstream oil or gas production, coal mining, infrastructure dedicated to coal, oil and natural gas, and power generation or heat production from fossil fuel sources” by 2020.
This was supported by this week's report from the Carbon Tracker Initiative, which said all of the major oil companies last year sanctioned new projects that fall outside a "well below 2 degrees" global carbon budget, and highlighted Shell's $13bn liquified natural gas project in Canada as one of the largest of these new investments. They should not be used as a prop to continue with business that is fundamentally unsustainable.” Shell’s investment in nature-based solutions is controversial for environmental groups, who were not falling over themselves to congratulate the oil major.Īs Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist tweeted after the oil major’s announcement: “Natural climate solutions are great, but best used for the last few percent of CO2 emissions, which are really hard to deal with. Amid accusations that the Anglo-Dutch oil major is trying to extend an unsustainable business model with its embrace of nature-based climate solutions and increased investment in gas, Terry Slavin interviews Shell New Energies' Mark Gainsborough about Shell's Net Zero Carbon Footprint plan
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