Effective climate protection or just a fee to calm your own conscience? Shell customers can offset their CO2 emissions in the future with an additional charge on the fuel price.
Hamburg (dpa) - The energy group Shell wants to offer its customers in the future to offset their CO2 emissions with a voluntary surcharge for the preservation and reforestation of forests.
Shell has selected renowned international projects, for example in Peru and Indonesia, Shell announced in Hamburg. "Even if avoiding CO2 would certainly have been better, it doesn't help to do nothing," said gas station boss Jan Toschka. "Because the almost 47 million conventional cars will not disappear overnight." Even with the new registrations in 2019, the proportion of pure combustion engines was a good 91 percent.
The cost for the driver should be just over a cent per liter. The customer should only pay for the compensation of the CO2 that he generates when driving by burning the fuel. Shell assumes the costs for the compensation of the CO2, which arises in production, transport and distribution. The offer applies to Germany, Austria and Switzerland and has already been tried and tested in other countries. Shell is the second largest operator of gas stations in Germany after Aral.
Similar offers for customers are already available in aviation, through agencies such as Atmosfair or Myclimate, for a variety of consumer goods and services. The compensation of CO2 emissions by other measures is controversial. On the one hand, only a minority of customers use the offered option, on the other hand, the compensation cannot be calculated exactly because the CO2-binding effect of trees and forests is assessed differently.
The Shell Group has set itself the goal of reducing its net carbon footprint by around half by 2050, said Germany boss Fabian Ziegler. This affects both emissions from the company's own operations, as well as energy suppliers and customers who use Shell products. "With this objective, Shell is a pioneer among the major energy companies," said Ziegler.
He also pointed out the difficulties and challenges for an energy company like Shell, whose business model has so far mainly been based on the fossil fuels oil and gas. "We are also investing in low-carbon companies and technologies such as biofuels, hydrogen, wind and solar energy, and capture and storage technologies for CO2," said Ziegler. Electricity should also become an important lever for Shell. In addition to the previous three pillars of oil, gas and chemicals, the group plans to build a significant global electricity business by 2035.
