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* Shell sets `ambition' for net zero emissions by 2050
* Sets 3%-4% emissions reduction target by 2022
* FACTBOX-Big Oil's varied climate targets
(Adds comment, details)
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell on
Thursday deepened its ambition to battle climate change, setting
the oil and gas sector's broadest plan to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to net zero by 2050.
The new climate goals come as Shell and its peers face the
sector's biggest crises in decades after oil prices collapsed
and global demand for energy cratered due to coronavirus,
leading companies to sharply cut their spending plans.
The emission ambitions put the Anglo-Dutch company - at
least on paper - ahead of the most progressive of its rivals,
including BP and Italy's Eni.
"Society's expectations have shifted quickly in the debate
around climate change," chief executive Ben van Beurden said in
a statement.
"Shell now needs to go further with our own ambitions, which
is why we aim to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050
or sooner."
Shell said it plans to fully offset carbon emissions from
its own oil and gas production by 2050, in what is known as
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Those emissions do not include the much larger category of
greenhouse gases emitted from fuels and products it sells to
customers such as jet fuel and gasoline, known as Scope 3.
The company however said it will "pivot towards serving
businesses and sectors that by 2050 are also net-zero
emissions," which it said means its absolute emissions,
including Scope 3, should be fully offset.
Investors welcomed the announcement, but differed on whether
it is in line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit
global warming to "well-below" 2 degrees Celsius by the end of
the century.
"Shell plans to become a net-zero emissions energy business
(covering scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions) or sooner by 2050," Carola
van Lamoen, head of Robeco's Active Ownership team, said.
"This package of enhanced steps, set against the current
other commitments in the oil and gas sector, significantly jumps
Shell to the leading global position," van Lamoen told Reuters.
Mark van Baal, founder of activist group Follow This, said
the new goals were not enough.
"Shell's Board is still failing in its responsibility to
show leadership at a time of devastating climate change," he
said.
Shell also recommended investors vote against a climate
resolution filed by Follow This ahead of its annual general
meeting in May calling for more aggressive climate steps.
SCOPE 3
Energy companies' carbon emission reduction targets vary
largely in scope and definition.
Shell's ambition applies to all of the products it produces,
refines and buys from other companies in absolute terms.
BP, for example, aims to bring net emissions from its equity
barrels from oil well to petrol station to zero by 2050,
including a 50% reduction of the carbon intensity of all
products it sells.
FACTBOX-Big Oil's varied climate targets
Shell also expanded its broader aim to cut the total carbon
emission footprint from energy products its sells, an
intensity-based measure, by around 65% by 2050, and by around
30% by 2035.
Previously it aimed to reduce its net carbon footprint by
50% by 2050 and by 20% by 2035.
The company has rejected setting long-term targets, opting
instead for ambitions which its says allow it flexibility to
move "in step" with society's shift away from fossil fuels in
order to battle global warming.
Shell did not outline how it plans to change its spending
plans in order to meet the new climate goals. Last year it spent
roughly 8% of its $24 billion budget on low-carbon energies.
It also set binding targets to reduce its net carbon
footprint in the three years to 2022 by 3% to 4% from a 2016
baseline.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Susan Fenton, John
Stonestreet and Mike Harrison)
