From hard-to-abate to how-to-abate: how could society decarbonise the way it flies, ships and moves goods around the world?

“It’s not all plane sailing: the race is on to decarbonise global transportation and heavy industry”

If society is to achieve the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement, then the world must stop adding to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the atmosphere. That much is clear. We know that renewable electricity has a big role to play in this process, but certain aspects of the more industrial sectors of the economy, like aviation, mining or even trucking, present a challenge, since they cannot be immediately – or even perpetually – powered by electricity.

Together these industrial and heavy transportation sectors of the economy account for significant proportion of global CO2 emissions every year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) [1]. And this share is expected to grow as other sectors – such as power, buildings, and light transport – decarbonise. These sectors are often referred to collectively as ‘hard-to-abate’, but in this series of articles, I want to explore how society could tackle these emissions. I suggest we recast them as the ‘how-to-abate’ sectors. I invite you to join me.

The race is on for sectoral solutions

I listen to my customers. They are asking for solutions. And so, the race is on for governments, industries, businesses and their customers to find ways to tackle the carbon emissions that come from just about everything the world makes and how we move it – and ourselves – around the globe. How do you decarbonise your morning coffee, fast-fashion or the tablet you are reading this on?

An approach – sectoral decarbonisation – is emerging. It relies on deep understanding of global energy networks and value chains. And it recognises the importance of re-modeling, for a net-zero world, how energy demand is driven by customers, as well as focusing on how this energy is supplied.

The approach also acknowledges that the decarbonisation will not happen through one-off pieces of brilliant engineering, policy making or marketing. Brilliance is needed, but success will require consistent deployment and usage of new technologies, new fuels, new offers to customers. There is a critical role for government policy to balance incentives and mandates that can set a clear direction, while providing opportunities to trade and offset emissions.

Above all, success will require open collaborations to accelerate the emergence of new global standards and infrastructure that can meet different energy needs around the world, limiting the average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the process.

Kick start momentum with a customer-led approach

As Executive Vice President of Shell’s new Sectors & Decarbonisation business, my job is to help airlines, shipping and trucking companies, and the industrial, mining and agricultural sectors of the economy decarbonise their businesses in commercially viable ways. My team is accountable not just for providing energy products, but also for providing decarbonisation pathways, know-how, support and services.

Over the past 18 months, we’ve collaborated with Deloitte to ask the world’s airlines, shippers and commercial road transport companies how they envision a pathway to reduce, avoid and, if necessary, mitigate emissions from the way we fly, ship and move goods around the world.

You can read these reports and the response from Shell here. Throughout them, you’ll see: an appetite for change; calls to accelerate progress; and potential decarbonisation pathways.

But these conversations have raised various questions, dilemmas and trade-offs too. For example, who leads the charge? How do we best develop and deploy solutions? And ultimately, how should we share the burden of cost for a new global energy and fuel infrastructure?

In search of answers to these questions, Shell is staking a leadership role through its Powering Progress strategy and sectoral approach, forming and joining alliances with others who see an advantage to being at the forefront of policy discussions, technology developments and meeting the demands of the customer of the future.

My thoughts on the future of energy

Today, Shell, provides fuels and mobility products to the world’s big energy customers. Increasingly we could supply decarbonisation solutions as customers look for solutions to their emissions, which by extension are included in Shell’s own immediate-term, medium-term and long-term goals to achieve net zero emissions as a company.

In doing so, our approach is to design energy and decarbonising solutions for each economic sector, with key opportunities existing in technology, alliances and strong policy incentives. All of which ladders up to avoiding, reducing and mitigating emissions, as we help society on its journey to achieve the goals set out by the Paris Agreement.

And so, over the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on:

• The importance of working with customers to accelerate demand for low-carbon energy products and services,
• The role of sharp competition and close collaboration,
• The need for open data and digital solutions,
• Potential trade-offs between the ‘perfect’ and the ‘palatable’ when it comes to solutions,
• Why policy incentives are needed to mandate change,
• The importance of including as many options as possible to reduce, avoid or mitigate emissions, particularly from hard-to-abate transportation and industrial sectors.

As I do, I’d love to hear from you. I’m sure you will have ideas, suggestions and there will be agreements and disagreements. No one company, institution or society can do this alone – we need to work together. So, if you are interested in joining the sectoral approach to decarbonisation, please share your thoughts and get in touch.

Shell’s Sectors & Decarbonisation business

Shell is transforming its business to help lead change in the energy industry and accelerate decarbonisation. The company has created a Sectors & Decarbonisation business that drives technical and commercial leaders to work more closely with their customers to develop pathways that will help decarbonise sectors of the global economy. This, in turn, is part of how Shell will achieve its own target to be a net-zero emissions company by 2050, in step with society’s progress in achieving the 1.5oC goal of the Paris Agreement.

At Shell Sectors & Decarbonisation, we aim to help our customers avoid, reduce and mitigate their emissions through innovations, partnerships and policy incentives. We believe this will reduce costs, provide the incentives for new infrastructure, and stimulate customer demand.

[1] Source