Shell, a major energy company, has reduced the significance of a crucial environmental goal as it plans to go against climate specialists by expanding its liquified natural gas operations and maintaining its oil production at current levels until 2030.

The company indicated that it may decrease the rate at which it reduces emissions in the next ten years by implementing a new goal to lower the carbon emissions intensity of its energy sales by 15-20% by the end of the decade. This adjustment is a decrease from its previous aim of 20%.

Shell’s latest energy transition strategy includes a weakened target that aims to slow down the company’s rate of emissions reduction for the next decade. This decision has been met with criticism from climatologists, who have emphasized the urgency of taking swift action to prevent a potential climate catastrophe.

Agathe Masson, a member of the organization Reclaim Finance, stated that this move is a significant setback and demonstrates Shell’s lack of commitment towards addressing climate change.

Environmental specialists have urged all companies that produce fossil fuels to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from the energy they distribute, also known as “scope 3 emissions”, by scaling back their production of oil and gas. Rather than focusing on the overall emissions, Shell’s goals revolve around the carbon footprint of their products. This approach allows for the possibility of producing more gas with lower emissions intensity, but could still result in an overall increase in emissions as production levels escalate.

The revised plan now aims to decrease the scope 3 emissions of its oil sector by 15-20% by the year 2030, in comparison to the levels in 2021. However, there is no scope 3 emissions target established for its gas sector, as it is anticipated to expand by 50% by 2040.

The weaker climate targets were set out alongside Shell’s annual report, which shows its chief executive, Wael Sawan, will take home a pay packet worth almost $10m (£7.94m). His predecessor Ben van Beurden was paid £9.7m in 2022.

Jonathan Noronha-Gant, who works as a senior campaigner for the NGO Global Witness, expressed their disapproval of Shell’s CEO receiving an £8 million salary. They stated that it is difficult to accept when millions of individuals are struggling to afford energy costs. Additionally, Noronha-Gant pointed out that our dependence on Shell’s fossil fuels is making the company rich while the general population suffers financially.

In 2023, Shell’s annual earnings exceeded $28 billion, making it one of the most lucrative years in its history. Meanwhile, environmental activists organized a demonstration outside the company’s headquarters in London.

In June, Sawan caused frustration among environmental organizations when they seemed to backtrack on their goal to decrease Shell’s oil and gas output by 1-2% annually in order to increase profits.

In 2021, Shell announced its commitment to decrease its oil production annually for the next ten years, starting from its peak of 1.9m barrels a day in 2019. This goal was successfully met in 2021 due to the divestment of its share in a major project located in the Permian basin in the US, totaling $9.5bn. As a result, Shell’s current oil production has lowered to 1.5m barrels a day, which is equivalent to 200,000 barrels of oil and gas production in the previous year.

The corporation intends to initiate sufficient fossil fuel initiatives to increase its daily oil and gas production by 500,000 barrels by 2025.

Ignoring the guidance of climate experts, the choice to further invest in fossil fuels disregards the need to halt any new oil or gas projects in order to prevent a potential climate catastrophe.

According to Sawan, the recent oil and gas ventures will allow Shell to maintain energy stability in the world and ensure long-term cash flow.

Source: theguardian.com