Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, pledged Tuesday to increase its investment in renewable fuels and cut its carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent by 2035 and in half by 2050.
Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive, said the company will spend up to $2 billion a year from 2018 to 2020 on renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydrogen power, as well as on charging stations for electric vehicles. He made the comments to the company’s investors, the New York Times reported.
The commitment is less than 10 percent of Shell’s total investment dollars.
Still, it’s another recent example of the energy industry showing it is committed to combating climate change even as the Trump administration rolls back regulations, and President Trump pulls out of the Paris climate change agreement.
Van Beurden told investors Shell supports the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which many scientists say the world would see irreversible effects from climate change.
“We will do this in step with society’s drive to align with the Paris goals,” Van Beurden said. “We will do it by reducing the net carbon footprint of the full range of Shell emissions, from our operations and from the consumption from our products.”
Shell’s carbon emissions reduction pledge followed a shareholder resolution, backed by the company, that called on it to embrace targets to improve its performance to combat climate change.
Shell is one of several major energy companies that signed onto a separate pledge last week to reduce emissions of methane from natural gas production.
Energy companies, including Shell, have promoted natural gas as an important component of addressing climate change because it produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than coal.
They also view natural gas as increasingly important to the stability of the power grid as renewables increase their share, since wind and solar require the sun to be shining and wind to be blowing.
But methane, the main component in natural gas, is more potent than carbon dioxide, although methane emissions are relatively short-lived.
