Just last month, the UK went a day without using any coal to generate electricity. What a remarkable milestone for a country in which the first steam-driven public power station was opened more than 130 years ago.
That shows the impact governments can have, by introducing policies which tackle decarbonisation directly.
Role of companies
What about companies like Shell? What can we do to help tackling the challenge of meeting increasing global demand for energy while lowering emissions? In the near-term, the biggest contribution we can make to reducing global emissions is to continue our focus on gas.
In our natural gas business, we will continually look for ways to boost the efficiency of our operations. There’s an obvious commercial incentive here. It will also inevitably further improve the environmental footprint of gas.
The industry has to continue to cut methane emissions across the full supply chain. High levels of methane emissions would clearly undermine the credibility of gas.
Shell – indeed the whole gas industry – must not let that happen.
Investments
But it’s not just about improving our core business, important though that is in the future energy mix. We’re also investing in low-carbon and renewable energy sources.
Our efforts in this regard aren’t just focused on the power sector. For example, we’re also looking at opportunities in the transport sector. It accounts for more than one quarter of the world’s total energy use, and one fifth of global energy-related CO2 emissions.
In San Diego, London and Hamburg, we’ve worked with customers to ensure they avoided charging their electric vehicles at times of day when there is most demand. We remotely controlled the charging of their electric vehicles and shifted it to times of the day when renewables made up a significant portion of the power generation mix.
This was a win-win. We got paid by the grids to help balance overall power demand. Customers avoided the higher costs of charging their vehicles at peak times. And there was less pressure on the power grids supplying these cities.
Across the global economy
The speed of the global energy transition to a low-carbon future will depend on the policies successive governments introduce – at national and state level. It will also depend on the actions of energy companies, big and small.
I can’t impress enough the importance of the world embracing this transition across all sectors of the global economy. It’s right to have a strong focus on the power sector. Especially as electricity’s share of the global energy system increases. But transport, buildings and industry must not be ignored.
And end to fossil fuels now will not help the world meet global energy demand, while transitioning to a low-carbon future. It creates a false impression. The world needs holistic solutions, which maximise the role renewables should play, and embrace natural gas and bioenergy as critical sources in the future energy mix. Everyone in this room has a powerful voice on the global stage to highlight the pragmatic path forward.
So, no. Shell will not get out of the way. We are not in the way. We’re a part of the transition to a low-carbon future. And that’s exactly where we plan on staying throughout this century.
