Sectoral decarbonisation

Working with our customers, we are helping them to address the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions they produce when they use products bought from us. We are also helping our customers to find ways to reduce their overall carbon footprints. Partnering with others involves supporting government policies to reduce carbon emissions, sector by sector. This includes sectors that are difficult to decarbonise, such as aviation, shipping, road freight and industry.

For example, we have agreed a deal with Amazon Air to supply up to six million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel. This biofuel, produced by the company World Energy using agricultural waste fats and oils, has significantly lower life-cycle carbon emissions than conventional jet fuel.

We also formed a strategic alliance with Microsoft in 2020. Shell will help supply Microsoft as the technology company works towards its goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2025. Both companies will develop digital tools to help Shell’s customers decarbonise.

We are working on more of these strategic relationships, generating value while helping sectors to reduce their carbon emissions.

In shipping, we have also developed and deployed advanced energy-efficiency technologies, such as software that helps guide a vessel’s position in the water to cut fuel consumption and lower emissions, as well as advanced engine lubricants that also boost efficiency. We outlined the actions we are taking to help accelerate progress towards net-zero emissions in the shipping sector in our report Setting Shell’s Course.

In the road freight sector, we offer nature-based carbon credits to business customers operating heavy- and light-duty fleets in 10 countries across Europe and Asia (see Nature-based solutions). Together with Daimler Truck AG, IVECO, OMV, and the Volvo Group, we will also help create the conditions for the mass-market roll-out of hydrogen trucks in Europe (see Hydrogen).

Industry collaborations

We are a founding member of the Energy Transitions Commission. The commission brings together leaders from a wide range of sectors and interests to accelerate the energy transition while enabling robust economic development and limiting the rise in global average temperature.

In 2020, we agreed to apply six Energy Transition Principles that we jointly developed with BP, Eni, Equinor, Galp, Occidental, Repsol and Total. The principles aim to support collective industry acceleration to contribute to the Paris Agreement goals by delivering progress on reducing GHG emissions, the role of carbon sinks, and transparency and alignment on climate change with trade associations.

The joint approach was welcomed by Climate Action 100+, an initiative led by investors with around $52 trillion in assets under management. Read more about the principles at www.shell.com/leading-energy-companies-announce-transition-principles

We have helped to develop a range of sector-specific programmes under the Mission Possible Platform, an initiative by the World Economic Forum together with the Energy Transitions Commission. The platform focuses on developing partnerships for enabling the heavy-industry and heavy-duty transport sectors to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

We also work with the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), a voluntary CEO-led group that focuses on carbon capture, utilisation and storage, methane detection and reduction, and energy efficiency. In 2020, the OGCI announced a new target to reduce the collective average carbon intensity of member companies’ aggregated upstream oil and gas operations to between 20 kilograms and 21 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent by 2025. This is consistent with the reduction needed across the industry by 2025 to support the Paris Agreement goals.

Read more about Shell’s work with others to help address GHG emissions across different sectors at www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/cutting-carbon-together-sector-by-sector