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LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell set
out plans on Thursday to boost the use of nature-based carbon
offsets and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, two
climate solutions in their infancy but seen crucial to
controlling global warming.
Both technologies can mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions
Shell and its customers cannot eliminate on the path to the
group's 2050 net zero carbon target.
Shell wants to ramp up its use of nature-based carbon
offsets, which include forestation projects, to 120 million
tonnes a year by 2030, a big jump given the entire voluntary
carbon offset market reached 104 million tonnes in 2019,
Ecosystem Marketplace figures show.
Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said in a presentation he
could imagine its nature-based offset solution portfolio growing
to 300 million tonnes a year. It is currently investing around
$100 million a year in this sector.
"Many customers from individuals to companies today have no
alternative to using carbon-based energy, but still want to be
net zero. We can mitigate emissions as an integral part of the
energy solutions we sell them," van Beurden said.
"The order of priority is this. First, avoid emissions,
second, reduce emissions, and only then turn to mitigation."
Critics of carbon offsets say they allow the continued use
of hydrocarbon products rather than their elimination.
Other European oil majors, such as BP, also view
carbon offsets as a growth sector.
Greenpeace said in a statement Shell’s plans were based on a
"delusional reliance on tree-planting".
Shell said it aims to boost its use of carbon capture and
storage (CCS) technology, which filters out carbon before fumes
from industrial operations reach the atmosphere and stores it
underground or in materials, to 25 million tonnes a year by
2035.
Eventually, Shell, which currently has 4.5 million tonnes of
CCS capacity either in use or in the pipeline, aims to sell CCS
as a service to other emitters, van Beurden said.
In 2020, global operational CCS capacity stood at around 40
million tonnes, the Global CCS Institute said.
CCS is increasingly viewed as having a major role in
reaching the goal of the Paris climate accord to keep global
warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, but its high cost has so
far prevented its use on a commercial scale in the absence of a
global price on carbon.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; editing by Barbara Lewis)
