By Ron Bousso
March 7 (Reuters) - The
Speaking at the CERAWeek conference by IHS Markit in
"The energy landscape is changing fast. So we must change,where change is what the world needs," van Beurden said.
He spoke after
"We are passionate about renewable energy. But the world,especially developing economies, will continue to need fossilfuels, as over a billion people on the planet live withoutaccess to electricity," Perry said.
Van Beurden, in an unusually strong-worded speech, saidclimate was the biggest challenge facing the energy sector.
"There may not be total unity behind the Paris Agreement anylonger, but there is no other issue with the potential todisrupt our industry on such a deep and fundamental level."
Perry extolled growing
The rise of gas at the expense of dirtier coal helped theworld's biggest economy sharply reduce its carbon emissions overthe last decade, as gas displaced much domestic coal demand.
"The lesson is clear (that) we don't have to choose betweengrowing our economy and caring for our environment, by embracinginnovation over regulation we can benefit from both," Perrysaid.
Shell and other European peers including BP,
Executives at the
Other executives spoke of moving to carbon capturetechnologies and carbon taxes. Robert Dudley, president of BP,said Tuesday that "at some point in the future a price on carbonhas to be part of this answer."
The projected growth of oil demand is "definitely not inline with the
Few were as emphatic as van Beurden, who outlined how Shellis moving to meet its targets to halve carbon emissions by 2050.Steps include limiting emissions from operations and boostingnatural gas production to reach 75 percent of company oil andgas output.
"Over time, this net carbon footprint ambition willtransform our company's product mix," van Beurden said.
Shell, the world's top trader of liquefied natural gas,currently produces around 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalentper day, of which roughly half is natural gas.
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