Posts under ‘Alternative Fuels’

By Marcelo Teixeira and Roberto Samora: MARCH 30, 2020

NEW YORK/SAO PAULO, March 30 (Reuters) – Two of Brazil’s largest fuel distributors said on Monday they are cutting the amount of ethanol they will buy from local suppliers to adjust to a slump in demand amid the coronavirus lockdown in Latin America’s largest economy.

Brazil’s number 1 fuel distributor, BR Distribuidora , said it will reduce the amount of ethanol it buys from Brazilian mills to levels that are below the minimum defined in contracts, due to an “atypical situation” created by the COVID-19 pandemic. read more

By Carl Meyer | News, Energy, Politics | March 4th 2020

A disputed environmental claim publicized by the fossil fuel firms backing a $40-billion liquefied natural gas project in B.C. can be traced back to a lifelong industry insider, who cautioned in interviews that his underlying calculations are “theoretical.”

Rob Seeley has been held up as an independent consultant who has demonstrated the green bona fides of natural gas coming from the proposed B.C. project, LNG Canada. The Coastal GasLink pipeline being built through unceded Wet’suwet’en Nation territory is meant to transport fracked gas to this terminal, where it would be liquefied, loaded onto ships and exported to Asia. read more

EXTRACTS (Entire New York Magazine article can be read here)

Since 2017, when I published a book about American millennials, I’ve had the occasional cold call from corporations to come talk about my work, all but one of which I’ve turned down. But last fall, the Shell Scenarios team — as in Royal Dutch Shell, one of the biggest oil companies in the world — offered me £2,000 in exchange for a 15-minute talk and my participation in a group exercise. Its internal corporate think tank was holding a daylong conference about how generational change would affect the hopefulness projected in what the company calls the “Sky Scenario,” which it describes as “a technically possible but challenging pathway for society to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.” I’m not a climate expert, but apparently I qualify as a generational whisperer, at least to Shell, and to talk to me about global warming, the giant energy conglomerate wanted to fly me to London from Philadelphia, business class. I warned them that I couldn’t keep their money and asked if I’d need to sign an NDA. When they said no, I saw an opportunity to report on the oil company, undercover while in plain sight, without technically lying to anyone. It was too good to pass up. I said yes, then I emailed my editor. read more

Radio 1 DJ Greg James was paid £100,000 by oil giant Shell to front an online campaign which plugged the company’s ‘green’ credentials.

The Breakfast Show presenter, who is paid £229,999 a year by the BBC, is the latest star to be accused of cashing in on their public profiles by moonlighting for corporate firms.

The 34-year-old, who broadcasts to around 5.6 million listeners each Monday to Thursday, fronted a five-part series for Shell called The Great Travel Hack.

The Top Gear-style programme followed two teams of competitors racing from London to Istanbul while using environmentally friendly vehicles. read more

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 / 10:26 AM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell and Dutch gas company Gasunie [GSUNI.UL] plan to build a massive green hydrogen plant in the northern Netherlands in the next decade, the companies said on Thursday, to cut emissions.

Fueled by a large new wind farm off the coast of Groningen province, the plant would ultimately be able to produce 800,000 tonnes of hydrogen by 2040, the companies said, cutting the Netherlands’ CO2 emissions by about 7 megaton per year. read more

Friday February 21, 2020

Royal Dutch Shell will not “get into an arms race” with BP over carbon targets, a senior executive has said, in a sign that Europe’s biggest oil group will not rush to match its rival’s “net zero” pledge.

The Anglo-Dutch group was the first oil major to set long-term ambitions related to emissions from customers using its products, pledging in 2017 to halve the intensity of its carbon footprint by 2050.

BP had been seen as a laggard on climate targets but last week Bernard Looney, its new chief executive, leapfrogged rivals with an ambition to eliminate the carbon footprint of all the oil and gas it produces by 2050. read more

by Daniel Binns: Published February 19, 2020

SEVEN out of ten Britons plan to buy an electric car when they trade in their current vehicle, a survey shows.

Cheaper fuel costs and being seen to do more to clean up the planet are major motivating factors, found Shell Energy.

Another is the phasing out of petrol and diesel cars — after the government revealed sales of new ones will be ended in 2035, five years earlier than planned.

Colin Crooks, the chief executive of Shell Energy, said: ‘We support the need for the UK to move faster to meet climate targets and research shows there is public support for the earlier ban on traditional car sales.’ read more

Anjli Raval in London

Global demand for liquefied natural gas is expected to double to 700m tonnes by 2040 as energy consumption, particularly in Asia, rises and as the world shifts away from dirtier burning fuels, Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday.

“The global LNG market continued to evolve in 2019, with demand increasing for LNG and natural gas in power and non-power sectors,” said Maarten Wetselaar, Shell’s head of gas and new energies. “Record supply investments will meet people’s growing need for the most flexible and cleanest-burning fossil fuel.” read more

BP’s new boss set out the boldest climate goal of any major oil company, pledging Wednesday to eliminate almost all of the carbon emissions from BP operations and the fuel it sells to customers.

Bernard Looney, who has been the company’s chief executive for just a week, set an ambitious agenda for what’s becoming an existential challenge for the oil industry. While peers such as Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Equinor have responded to investor pressure by adopting targets for emissions curbs, none has promised to zero out all emissions from the fossil fuels they pump from the ground. read more

BP’s pledge to zero out all its carbon emissions by 2050 deepens the divide between major European and American oil producers on climate change, increasing the pressure for Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. to do more.

The U.S. giants have committed only to reducing greenhouse gases from their own operations. On Wednesday, BP followed Royal Dutch Shell and Equinor in pledging to offset the carbon emissions from the fuels they sell. Known as Scope 3, the emissions from cars, homes and factories are responsible for 90% of fossil fuel pollution. read more

BP Boss Looney Sets Out to ‘Reinvent’ Oil Giant With Zero Carbon Goal

Reuters: Feb. 12, 2020

LONDON — BP set one of the oil sector’s most ambitious targets for curbing carbon emissions on Wednesday as new chief executive Bernard Looney began the biggest revamp in its 111-year history.

While investor groups welcomed the 2050 targets set out by Looney, which put BP ahead of rivals Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Equinor and all of the U.S. oil majors, environmental campaigners criticized a lack of detail.

“We have got to change and change profoundly because the world is changing fast and so are society’s expectations of us,” Looney said in his first major speech as CEO, after earlier highlighting a need to “reinvent BP”. read more

Last week, The Guardian announced it would no longer be accepting advertisements from big oil and gas companies. As a huge proponent of tackling climate change, The Guardian is the first major news publication to adopt this policy.

This position comes after youth activist Greta Thunberg called for news outlets covering climate change to support their own message by not accepting money from these fossil fuel companies.

And perhaps other publications like the New York Times and Washington Post, which are currently still producing ads for big oil companies, should follow suit. read more

AS Shell boss Ben van Beurden hailed a strong recent performance by the oil giant last week a note of irritation crept into the tone of the normally affable-sounding executive.

Asked if the Anglo-Dutch giant would maintain investment in the North Sea following disruption by climate change activists in Scotland, Mr van Beurden saw no reason why it should not.

Shell boss highlights potential of North Sea and defends oil giant’s respose to climate change

His comments suggested he felt noisy protests were stifling the debate about how the world should respond to the challenge. read more

JAN 31, 2020

Many investors would like to use their money to help tackle climate change, but figuring out how has not always been easy. Now a fund that benefits 38,000 current and retired clergy and other employees of the Church of England could offer a potential solution.

The Church of England Pensions Board, which manages 2.8 billion pounds (or $3.7 billion), this week announced an index that rewards companies working to curb their carbon-dioxide emissions in line with the targets of the 2015 Paris agreement, and bars companies that are perceived as environmental laggards. read more

Anna Bateson and Hamish Nicklin: Wed 29 Jan 2020 12.07 GMT

For anyone who believes the world faces an urgent climate crisis, it has been quite a year. The world’s leading scientists tell us we have just twelve years to change human behaviour to avert catastrophe. Teenage climate strikers inspire millions of people, young and old, to protest against inaction, and devastating bushfires sweep across much of Australia. This is the most important challenge of our times.

Our Guardian editorial colleagues have led the world in covering the crisis with expertise and urgency. In May 2019 our editor-in-chief Katharine Viner announced that the Guardian would shift to using more urgent language to describe the climate emergency – and other news organisations have begun to follow suit. read more