Government policies adopted in Europe in the next five years could help shape the world’s energy landscape for a half-century to come, according to Shell.
The company believes that establishing incentives for companies to develop technology to capture CO2 from large industrial sites like power plants and safely store it underground will be crucial.
Shell noted that a failure to do so could jeopardize Europe’s leadership in the fight against climate change. The company has also outlined two plausible paths under its Shell Energy Scenarios initiative, to chart the evolution of the world’s energy needs till 2050.
Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s CEO, said: Because CO2 capture and storage adds costs and yields no revenues, government action is needed to support and stimulate investment quickly on a scale large enough to affect global emissions. Delaying the widespread deployment of CO2 capture and storage beyond 2020 would translate into a yearly one-part-per-million increase in long-term atmospheric CO2 stabilization levels.
