Some industry stalwarts, like Exxon, are in outright denial. Others, like coal king Peabody Energy, can’t help but feel acute pain as their once-impenetrable fortresses crumble. Others, like Shell, are investing in the future.
SOURCE:Green Builder Media
DESCRIPTION:
Europe’s largest oil company, Shell, sees the writing on the wall. The Anglo-Dutch conglomerate has determined that it is not going to rely only on dirty fossil fuels for its livelihood. Rather, it’s going to catch a wave on the market tide and invest in the burgeoning clean energy revolution.
The decision was made shortly after London-based economists warned international oil companies that they must transform their business models and determine a way to mitigate the risk of ‘stranded assets’, or face a “short, brutal end within 10 years."
According to Paul Stevens, Professor at University College London and Fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, “the prognosis for the IOCs [international oil companies] was already grim before governments became serious about climate change and oil prices collapsed … their old business model is dying.”
In response to this bleak diagnosis, Shell recently announced that it has developed New Energies, a renewable energy division, which will combine the company’s existing hydrogen, biofuels, and electrical activities with large-scale investments in wind and solar power.
Group chief executive, Ben van Beurden, claims that he wants shell to be on the leading edge of the transition to a low-carbon economy, so he has allocated $1.7 billion in capital investment and a $200 million cap-ex budget to New Energies.
Read the full story on the Shell Renewable Energy Division...
KEYWORDS: Energy, Climate and the environment, Shell, Sara Gutterman, Green Builder Media, Shell Renewable Energy Division
