Shell’s carbon capture project emits more GHG than it sequesters
NGO Global Witness reports that Shell’s Quest carbon capture project in Canada is pushing more greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere than it is capturing.
One of the few fossil hydrogen plants in the world to use a carbon capture system, Quest is a carbon capture and storage project at a hydrogen plant run by Shell on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project. It opened in 2015 and according to Shell’s website has captured and stored more than five million tonnes of CO2.
An investigation by Global Witness reveals that Shell has over that same period emitted 7.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The NGO found that 48% of the plant’s carbon emissions are captured, falling well short of the 90% carbon capture rate promised by the industry for the fossil hydrogen project, also known as blue hydrogen. This rate drops to only 39% when including other greenhouse gas emissions from Shell’s project, says Global Witness.
On their website Shell lauds the Quest facility as an example of how to tackle global heating, claiming it demonstrates carbon capture systems are “safe and effective” and a “thriving example” of how the technology can reduce carbon emissions. But, the promotional material about the project does not mention how much emissions it pushes out.
Is carbon capture through blue hydrogen ever going to work?
Dominic Eagleton, Senior Gas Campaigner at Global Witness, calls the promotion of fossil hydrogen by oil and gas companies a fig leaf to allow them to carry on toxic practices: “For years Shell has repeatedly used this project to show they are acting on climate change but given its huge carbon footprint it is impossible to describe these claims as anything but misleading. Beyond the PR and greenwash, the simple fact is that Shell’s hydrogen plant is creating more emissions than it is capturing and is therefore contributing to the climate crisis.”
“The single best way for companies like Shell to help tackle the climate crisis is to phase out all fossil fuel operations, rather than find ways to hide their climate-wrecking activity behind false solutions,” said Eagleton.
The study also shows how Shell’s project is part of the company’s controversial tar sands operations in Alberta, Canada. Tar sands are notorious for being one of the most environmentally damaging extractive developments in the world. It has been criticised for encroaching on the land of indigenous people, resulting in large-scale deforestation and land disturbance, as well as air and water pollution.
In light of these findings, Global Witness is calling on governments around the world to resist demands from industry to provide financial and regulatory support for new fossil hydrogen projects and instead work to phase out existing ones and promote renewable-based alternatives. More broadly Global Witness wants to see a rapid phase-out of fossil gas and with it, an end to the industry’s destructive impacts on Indigenous, Black and Brown communities.
Oil companies hiding behind doublespeak
Earlier this week ExxonMobil’s release of a net-zero by 2050 plan had climate activists via social media question whether the company wasn’t simply engaging in a greenwashing PR exercise.
While ExxonMobil’s roadmap expounded greatly on Scope 1 and 2 emissions goals it doesn’t expand too much on how it would reach said goals. It also neglected to mention how the company would address Scope 3 emissions – the results of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the organisation, but which the organisation indirectly impacts in its value chain, like the fuel it creates and energy-related activities.
Shell has in its net-zero roadmap mentioned its Scope 3 emissions, which apparently makes up about 85% of the Shell Group’s emissions. This figure was mentioned in a Hague District Court ruling in May 2021 when the court ruled the Shell Group’s Netherlands-based parent company, Royal Dutch Shell, owed the Dutch people an unwritten standard of care based on international human rights law.
Shell will appeal the decision by the Court that it should increase its target for emission reductions to a net 45% below 2019 levels across the group’s portfolio for scopes 1, 2 and 3. Shell had said it plans to reduce the carbon footprint of the energy products it sells to customers, on an intensity basis, by 30% by 2035 and 65% by 2050.
SOURCE: ESI AFRICA
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