Shell raises climate ambitions

Shell wants its product chains to be climate neutral by 2050. The oil and gas company announced this today. The plans build on Shell's agreements with Climate Action 100+ in 2018. On behalf of its pension fund clients, APG is part of this investor initiative.

Climate neutral means that, on a net basis, Shell does not want to emit greenhouse gases by 2050 or earlier. This applies to both Shell's own direct emissions, and the indirect emissions of Shell’s suppliers and customers.

As part of this ambition, Shell accelerates its efforts to reduce the net carbon footprint of its products, such as gasoline or kerosene. Whereas the company initially aimed for a 50% cut for 2050 and 20% for 2035, it now targets 65% and 30% respectively. As for customers, such as airlines and transport companies, Shell wants to focus more and more on companies that capture, store or compensate CO₂ in their own chain , for example by expanding natural ecosystems. This will make the total chain climate neutral by 2050.

With these plans, Shell is taking further steps to contribute to the achievement of the Paris climate goals, says Corien Wortmann, chairwoman of the board of ABP pension fund. "We appreciate the fact that Shell regularly evaluates and now raises its ambitions. It is good to see what responsible investors can achieve if they join forces in an initiative such as Climate Action 100+."

After the earlier announcements in 2017 and 2018, Shell's example has been followed by other oil and gas companies. "We hope that this announcement will again have a domino effect. As a responsible investor and critical shareholder of Shell and other oil and gas companies, we will continue to monitor this closely."

With its new ambitions, Shell heeds the call in a recent report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 rather than 2 degrees Celsius.