Our fleet fuel card company is happy to hear that Royal Dutch Shell (more commonly known as Shell), one of the largest oil companies in the world, is pledging to go greener by reducing the amount of emissions it produces. In fact, it aims to halve them: by 2035, the company wants to cut its net emissions by 20% and by 2050, 50%.
In an interview that aired on CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said, “Our view is if society needs to tackle the dual challenge of climate change but also accommodating higher demand for energy — as of course the energy poor need to get access to energy as well — we have to reduce the carbon footprint of the energy system as a society to a net zero level.”
The company will work to provide more lower-carbon fuels (like biofuels) to its customers as well as ramp up its investments in renewable energy like wind and solar. It will also invest in areas like carbon capture and storage, a technology that pulls greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide and methane) from emissions and stores them underground.
Shell may also be able to use its push in natural gas to reduce its carbon emissions. Natural gas emits about half as much carbon as coal and significantly less carbon than diesel, heating oil, and gasoline, which means significantly fewer emissions are released into the air when it’s burned. Shell is actually the leading independent producer of liquified natural gas and has been exploring the variety of ways we can use it in order to reduce our carbon footprint.
In addition to these greener efforts, Shell also plans to increase its spending on New Energies (its clean-tech segment formed in 2016). The says it will revise its emissions target every five years and reevaluate its goals.
More on New Energies
Shell’s New Energies business “builds on our experience in lower-carbon technology and explores new commercial models focused on the world’s energy transition.” The segment focuses on investments in the development of alternative fuels (such as corn-derived ethanol and hydrogen fuel) as well as the growth of wind energy. It’s also working to improve city life by creating connection to customers through digitally technical business models.
*Photo courtesy of shell.us
