Shell's carbon ambition: blueprint for an energy Supermajor

Report summary

What will Big Oil look like 30 years from now? An existential question in the face of the energy transition. At its strategy day late last year, Shell provided an answer to that question. The company unveiled its 'net carbon footprint ambition' – a framework to halve its emissions intensity by 2050, in step with society's progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. Crucially, Shell's ambition accounts for emissions resulting from the end-use of the energy products it sells, as well as emissions from its own operations: a first for the oil and gas industry. The realisation of this ambition could see Shell change beyond recognition over the coming decades. In this Insight, we explain what Shell has committed to (and what it has not). We contemplate what Shell might look like in 2050, and what it would take to get there. And we give our view on the merits of Shell's approach, from a strategic perspective.