Shell quietly abandons radical plan to offset carbon emissions

Shell Plc's new chief executive, Wael Sawan, quietly ended the world's largest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets, the environmental projects designed to counteract the warming effects of CO2 emissions, as reported by Bloomberg.

Sawan's decision came just six months after becoming chief executive. The new strategy was presented to investors in June. "In an all-day investor event in June, Sawan laid out an updated strategy for the European oil major that included cutting costs and doubling down on profit drivers like oil and gas," Bloomberg explained.

The pullback proves "that the previous goals were simply unattainable"

However, the media outlet revealed that while meeting with investors, the executive director made no mention of the company's previous commitment to spend up to $100 million a year to build a carbon credit program, part of the company's pledge to reduce its emissions to zero by 2050. Bloomberg confirmed with the company that the targets for the carbon credit program were withdrawn.

Bloomberg reported that "Those goals for the offsets program have been retired, the company confirmed, along with the plan to harvest a whopping 120 million carbon credits annually by the end of the decade from projects that sequester carbon with trees, grasses or other natural resources, many of which Shell would develop itself."

The change in strategy is proof that the company's objectives were unfeasible. "The pullback reflects both Sawan’s renewed commitment to the oil-and-gas business that generates most of Shell’s profits, and an admission that the prior goals were simply unattainable," the news outlet added.

Finally, Bloomberg argued that "Shell has yet to adjust its long-term climate target of net-zero emissions by 2050. And Shell hasn’t abandoned its offsets efforts: yet its backup plan is revealing."