In tackling climate change, the focus is increasingly on limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5° Celsius. Shell supports this ambition.

For society to achieve a 1.5° Celsius future, the world is likely to need to stop adding to the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – a state known as net-zero emissions – by around 2060. Advanced parts of the world are likely to need to reach that point by 2050.

That is why Shell has set itself an ambition to become, by 2050 or sooner, a net-zero emissions energy business, in step with society.

We will work towards this in three ways.

Firstly, by seeking to be net zero on all the emissions from the manufacture of all our products by 2050 at the latest.

This ambition includes the emissions created by our operations and also those associated with the energy we consume. These are known as scope one and two emissions.

But the bulk of the emissions are our customers’ emissions when they use our products, known as scope three emissions.

Reducing Shell’s Net Carbon Footprint

That is why Shell’s second step towards being a net-zero emissions energy business is to reduce the Net Carbon Footprint of our energy products.

To achieve this Shell will need to sell more products with a lower carbon intensity, such as renewable power, biofuels and hydrogen.

In 2017 Shell’s ambition was to be in step with a society working towards a well-below 2° Celsius future. Today Shell’s ambition is to be in step with a society working towards a 1.5° Celsius future. So we have raised our Net Carbon Footprint ambition.

Long-term ambition

Our long-term ambition is to reduce the Net Carbon Footprint of the energy products we sell by 65% by 2050, instead of 50%. Shell’s interim, medium-term, ambition is to reduce it by 30% by 2035, instead of 20%. Read more about our Net Carbon Footprint ambition here.

Yet society will continue to need some energy products that create emissions for the foreseeable future. So Shell will continue to sell such energy products.

But that does not mean Shell cannot be a net-zero emissions energy business, because our customers can themselves take action on their emissions.

As society moves towards its low-carbon future our customers will need to mitigate emissions caused by their energy use because they will need to reduce their own scope one and two emissions. But these are the same emissions that count as Shell’s scope three emissions. That is why such actions by our customers can help Shell become a net-zero emissions business.