Olusola Bello
The international oil giant, Royal Dutch/Shell has set out a very ambitious target of providing reliable electricity to100 million consumers by the year 2030 in the emerging markets for those that do not have it yet.
The company said it power millions of lives by providing energy for homes, businesses and transport, for cooking, heating and lighting.
This was contained in the speech of Ben van Beurden, chief executive officer of the company in it Sustainability Report 2020. He stated: “We power lives by paying taxes, boosting local economies and developing people. We also do this by helping achieve universal access to clean, affordable energy”.
He said in 2020, Shell spent a lot of time looking at what it does in society and how it contributes. “We refreshed our business strategy and, when we announced it in February 2021, we called it Powering Progress.”
According to him, Powering Progress sets out the goals of the company for powering lives and livelihoods, and respecting nature by protecting the environment. It lays out how we believe Shell can and must play a role as the world accelerates towards a future of zero- and lower-carbon energy. It is designed to integrate sustainability with our business strategy.
Today, the reported stated that around 800 million people have no electricity access at all, and hundreds of millions more have unreliable power supply.
It said Goal 7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals recognises the vital importance of “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” in eradicating poverty and protecting the planet. “We are working to provide cleaner and reliable energy to those who do not have it today”.
The ambition of the company the reports says, is to provide reliable electricity supply to 100 million people, in emerging markets, by 2030.
We are working to improve the reliability of existing power supply to on-grid customers and to provide first power to off-grid customers and communities.
Consequently, it has made minority investments in companies that specialise in areas such as solar mini-grids and solar home systems that can deliver the reliable, affordable electricity customers need.
In 2020, we completed minority investments in PowerGen, a company that develops, builds and operates mini-grids in Africa; and in d.light, which provides reliable and affordable solar lighting and power systems for households and small businesses in 70 countries. “Our investments are supporting the companies as they scale up their activities, so they can deliver more and cleaner energy to more people”.
“We are also looking to develop large-scale power projects in key emerging markets”, it stated.
The ceo said Shell has set a target to transform into a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, in step with society. This supports the more ambitious goal to tackle climate change in the UN Paris Agreement: to limit the rise in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Becoming a net-zero emissions energy business he explained means that the company is reducing emissions from its operations, and from the fuels and other energy products it sell to its customers. It also means capturing and storing emissions safely underground using technology or balancing them with natural carbon sinks such as forests.
“We have set short-, medium- and long-term targets to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy products we sell, and have tied the short-term targets to our staff incentive structure. This includes lowering emissions from our operations, including the energy consumed in running them. It also includes the emissions from oil and gas that others produce and we then sell in our energy products – an industry-leading approach”.