- Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) CEO Ben van Beurden says it would be “foolhardy” for the company to set hard targets to cut carbon emissions as such a move risked exposing it to to legal challenges.
- "Before we put ourselves at the mercy of a legal challenge, I want to make sure we are doing the right thing first," van Beurden says, adding that "setting an ambition, sticking my neck out, my personal reputation, the reputation of the company, is a big enough incentive to get it right."
- The comments are similar to those made by BP CEO Bob Dudley at the company’s annual general meeting in May which cited potential lawsuits as the reason for refusing to disclose specific details of a carbon emissions plan.
- Shell spends the most among the world’s major oil and gas companies on low-carbon energies, investing as much as $2B/year in renewables and clean fuel technology out of a total annual spending budget of $25B-$30B.