Are Energy Company's 'Zero Carbon' ambitions driving wrong behaviours?

2020 has seen a number of corporate announcements indicating ambitions to reduce carbon footprints or greenhouse gas emissions or emission intensity. Shell, BP, Orsted, Total, Marathon, Repsol amongst others have made new announcements either with specific aims to be ‘net zero’ by 2050 or ‘carbon neutral’ or ‘zero emissions’. The aspirations and ambitions and the language used varies….. but what about the specifics… and what does this mean for significant impacts on Green House Gas (GHG) reductions? Are there some ‘smoke and mirrors’ at play here? Take this week’s announcement from Repsol …. two major pioneering industrial decarbonization projects. One project (see image) looks to capture CO2 from gaseous emissions, manufacture ‘green’ Hydrogen by using electricity from renewable sources and then convert the CO2 and Hydrogen into ‘zero emission fuels’. Net result.. the carbon ‘captured’ is ultimately returned to the atmosphere when the so called ‘zero emission’ fuels are burnt again in internal combusion or jet engines!

And this initiative also begs the question why not just use the renewable electricity straight into electric cars, removing gasoline and diesel powered cars from the road which are emitters of GHG?

The Transition Pathway Initiative is a useful ‘go to’ site for reviewing benchmarking of industrial assets..

https://www.transitionpathwayinitiative.org/tpi/sectors/oil-gas ….. but nothing replaces examination of detailed initiatives and claims of energy companies by qualified independent energy experts.