A senior executive at British-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) has said it will not “get into an arms race” with BP’s net-zero target.
The Times reported comments by the head of Shell’s head of gas and power divisions, Maarten Wetselaar. He defended Shell’s climate commitments, saying the company set short-term, achievable targets which BP has not yet done.
Wetselaar acknowledged BP had made a wider variety of announcements but said the company was not sure how BP had made the calculations behind its plan for net-zero emissions.
He said: “Once we understand them we will think about them but at the moment I don’t think we need to get into an arms race of CO2 targets — it’s much more important we execute our strategy to bring down our net carbon footprint.”
Responding, a BP spokesperson told Offshore Technology: “We were clear that this is our long-term ambition and that we will give more detail on our near-term plans and strategy in September.”
In 2017, Shell pledged to cut carbon intensity to 50% by 2050. Last week, BP pledged to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions for all of its products to net zero in the same time period.
UK-headquartered BP has faced criticism from other companies such as mining giant Glencore.
On Wednesday, Glencore predicted a carbon emissions decrease of 30% by 2035 as a side effect of depleting coal resources. The company did not set itself reduction targets.
The Financial Times reported CEO Ivan Glasenberg as saying: “2050 is a long way to go and we don’t want to come out with wishy-washy ideas.”
Glasenberg said Glencore preferred to be specific about what it announced.
Shell has not commented.
