Oil and gas group Shell wants emissions from its own activities to be reduced by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2016 levels.
With this, Shell is further increasing its efforts to reduce emissions. At the end of May, the court in The Hague ruled that the company is obliged to reduce the CO2 emissions it causes drastically. According to the judges, by 2030, those emissions must have decreased by 45 percent compared to 2019. Shell will appeal against that ruling but must take action until it is dealt with. Shell wants to be climate neutral by 2050.
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says in an explanation that with this new target for emissions, the strategy of the Anglo-Dutch company will be accelerated. According to Shell, it is also an important milestone on the road to becoming climate neutral.
Shell recorded an underlying profit of 4.1 billion dollars in the past quarter or more than 3.5 billion euros. Shell also benefited from the high oil prices because the profit was still 955 million dollars a year earlier. However, profits were hit by Hurricane Ida, which hit the southern United States in August. This harmed the profitability of approximately 400 million dollars. Much of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was temporarily halted by Ida.
On a net basis, Shell suffered a loss of $447 million due to accounting write-downs on derivative contracts, particularly gas. Total revenue in the past period amounted to 61.5 billion dollars compared to 44.7 billion dollars a year ago.
On Wednesday, it was announced that activist shareholder Third Point wants Shell to split into a company that deals with oil and gas and a company that focuses on renewable energy. According to Third Point, the split would provide clarity about the strategy. The two companies would also attract different types of investors.
Third Point recently took a stake in Shell of more than $750 million, according to Bloomberg news agency. This would immediately make it one of the largest shareholders. Shell’s total market value is approximately $190 billion.