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by ZeroGravitas 1424 days ago
Shell have committed to being net zero by 2050, including the products they sell and have some kind of a plan in place to make it happen.

There's bits of their plan that seem dubious to me, like mentions of carbon capture but overall, since I believe that the problem of climate change wasn't "oh no, we can't do this, because it's impossible" but rather "we're not going to do this", that commitment and plan is all I'm really looking for.

It would be like the USA implementing a carbon tax. Is it instantly going to solve all the problems tomorrow? Will it magically fix all the previous carbon they've emitted. No, but it would be a really smart thing to do and just based on their size, would have a massive impact over time accelerating the transition.
2 comments
teamonkey 1424 days ago
> Shell have committed to being net zero by 2050, including the products they sell

How is this remotely possible in any real sense? It doesn’t hold up to any form of scrutiny. They would literally have to remove thousands of tonnes of carbon from the air every year and put it back in the ground. That is not possible.

No, they’ve built a few wind farms and intend to trade carbon credits. Pure greenwashing.

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ZeroGravitas 1424 days ago
> They would literally have to remove thousands of tonnes of carbon from the air every year and put it back in the ground. That is not possible.

They don't need to remove it from the air, that's kind of the last resort, though some people do think that'll be part of the answer eventually and are investigating ways to do it. The simplest and cheapest option to reach their goal will generally be to avoid emitting carbon in the first place.

So yes, building wind farms is a good thing, as is running an EV charging network. Lots of things they can do to make money as a business that don't involve greenhouse gas emissions. Lots of ways they can save money as a business, which as a side effect reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon credits are a boring, sensible answer that economist like, it's basically equivalent to a carbon tax. It literally pays people to do the right thing, and charges them if they don't. It's one of the policies that enabled Tesla and EVs generally to succeed and get to the point where they are better than what we had before.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/tesla-electric-vehicle-regul...

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hunterb123 1424 days ago
Now do BP
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ZeroGravitas 1424 days ago
BP also has a net zero plan for 2050:

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/sustainability/gettin...

They also keep raising the ambitions of their goals over time. Basically, big corporations don't want to be the only one doing this, because their competitors would screw them. But if they all do it, then it's in everyone's benefit, you just need some system to make sure that the other corporations aren't cheating.

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hunterb123 1423 days ago
Oh a 2050 plan, wonderful. How many more oil spills until then?

Do you think that BP deserves the same rating as an EV company?

Do you really think that Tesla deserves an average rating in the automobile industry?

The same score or lower than the automobile companies who were cheating on emissions tests!

Turns out you can just say you have a plan 30 years in the future and be good.

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