Shell Boss: Global Carbon Price Needed
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says governments should put a price on carbon, which will then drive the “right behavior of consumers and producers” in terms of tackling climate change.
The oil giant’s boss, speaking at a conference yesterday, said heavy industry, heavy-duty transport, chemicals and other industries will continue to rely on fossil fuels because biomass won’t meet their energy demands, Energy Live News reports.
Van Beurden also said carbon pricing would boost technologies including carbon capture and storage.
And while a price on carbon would reduce emissions in the short term, van Beurden warns energy costs would increase, which is why he says “[policy makers] need to design carbon pricing systems that address concerns about cost and competitiveness. This isn’t impossible.”
Shell is one of more than two dozen major companies — including Walmart, BP, ExxonMobil and General Electric — that have integrated a price on carbon emissions into their long-term business plans, according to a CDP report.
Earlier this year van Beurden said the oil industry needs to take the lead in the climate change conversation and be “less aloof.”
In calling for a global price on carbon, Shell joins BP, which in February warned CO2 emissions will increase by 1 percent each year to 2035 — or 25 percent in total — unless policy makers put a “meaningful global price on carbon.”