Hold onto your lungs, folks—Shell and BP are back at it with their latest climate cosplay. Yes, the world’s favorite carbon barons have decided they still kinda want a piece of the “clean energy” pie—not to save the planet, of course, but because it gives them a juicy trading advantage. Welcome to the age of “capital-light” climate action, where you don’t have to build anything meaningful—you just trade electrons and slap a green label on it.
Shell, that bastion of environmental virtue (ahem), is now leaning into what CEO Wael Sawan proudly calls a “capital-light business model” for renewables. Translation: we’ll let other people build the stuff while we swoop in to make money off the volatility. Shell will “make use of project financing where it makes sense and work with partners,” said Sawan at the New York Stock Exchange, presumably while clutching a reusable water bottle for ESG optics.