Graeme Sweeney, Executive Vice President, Shell International Renewables B.V. and Roxanne Decyk, Corporate Affairs Director, answer your questions on the Shell Sustainability Report 2006 in a filmed interview. On this page the transcript of that interview.
| Caption: | Shell Dialogues
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| Roxanne Decyk: | I’m Roxanne Decyk, Corporate Affairs Director for Shell, and I’m delighted to be here today with my colleague Graeme Sweeney, Executive Vice President of Shell Renewables. |
| Roxanne Decyk: | The topic for today is our Sustainability Report, which we just published in May. |
| Graeme Sweeney: | The Sustainability Report for 2006 outlines how Shell has been rising to meeting the energy challenge. So the dialogue is the opportunity to cover those questions, and for you to judge for yourself how well we’re doing in meeting those objectives. |
| Caption: | Is there any impartial oversight… …of the Shell Sustainability Report? |
| Graeme Sweeney: | Roxanne, the Sustainability Report is part of our commitment to be transparent and honest about our social and environmental performance. Is there any impartial oversight of the report and it’s preparation? |
| Roxanne Decyk: | Well, yes. For the second year we’ve had an independent review committee. This year it was made up of six experts, each of whom were chosen because they’re truly expert in their field, but there are also people who know, or through their organisations know, about Shell - not just our operations but frankly some of our specific projects in different geographies. |
| Roxanne Decyk: | …The Review Committee meets a number of times, discusses both the content of the proposed report as well as the report that’s finally written, and they write their own independent assessment which we publish, without editing, in the report. And they’re very clear about what they think we’re doing well and what they think we need to do better. |
| Caption: | A growing number of experts believe oil production will peak in the next decade… …What steps is Shell taking to prepare for this? |
Roxanne Decyk: | One of the themes of this year’s report is how we aim to supply the hugely increasing demand for energy in socially and environmentally responsible ways. There’s been a lot of talk and interest in this so-called Peak Oil theory, the idea that we’re reaching the end of the available hydrocarbons and the world will run out of oil. Can you tell us a little bit about that, Graeme? |
Graeme Sweeney: | I think that we should start from a clear view that we don’t subscribe to the Peak Oil, or rapid descent into energy shortfall, that some commentators describe. So why is that? It’s because we believe that technology has a significant role to play. Not only will it enable more oil and gas to be extracted from existing reservoirs, but it will also enable us to find new oil in more difficult environments. Estimates suggest that the resources available in Canada are about the same as the reserves quoted for Saudi Arabia for example, so by the time you add all of these opportunities up, then we believe there is a substantial amount of hydrocarbons supply which will be available over the next decades. |
| Caption: | How can Shell help people to reduce emissions? …Won’t you be losing business? |
| Graeme Sweeney: | What’s Shell doing to encourage the efficient use of energy? |
Roxanne Decyk: | We do have a number of things that we’re doing to make specific uses of energy more efficient, for example, stationery energy sources like power plants. We’re a major provider of natural gas, both in gas and liquefied natural gas forms, and we have a unique technology that will help coal burn more cleanly in electric power plants, which is an increase of efficiency which helps everyone, including the environment. We also stress the need for raising consciousness generally around energy efficiency and conservation through things that really appeal to people, like the eco-marathon. We mention this in the Sustainability Report. We recently had an eco-marathon in Europe, we’ve had one in the United States, and there’s a huge amount of interest in finding ways to develop ever more efficient vehicles. |
| Caption: | Can you explain Shell’s commitment… …to alternative energy? |
| Roxanne Decyk: | Graeme, you’re responsible for renewables. Can you tell us a little bit about the role they play, and maybe something about the future that they represent? |
| Graeme Sweeney: | The role of renewables by 2050 could be as much as one-third of the total supply of energy, and that would compare with one or two per cent of the total supply to world energy demand today. So, our activities are formulated in that context. What we’re looking to do is to build a commercial, substantial and sustainable business over a period of time. |
| Caption: | What is Shell doing… …to prevent Climate Change? |
| Graeme Sweeney: | Roxanne, how should society and companies like Shell tackle climate change? |
Roxanne Decyk: | Well, it’s a good question and there isn’t an easy answer to it, because a number of players are going to have to take their place in solving this problem. An important player is governments, and we’ve been very forthright in what we think government must do to create a structure for the rest of the members of society, including companies like Shell, to make their contribution. We believe that government needs to not only consider it’s own needs, but actually for governments to work together, and for there to be an integrated set of structures and requirements across societies that allow companies to make the investments that will be necessary to solve these problems. |
| Graeme Sweeney: | What have we actually been doing in our own operations to improve efficiency? |
Roxanne Decyk: | Well, we’ve had a programme for quite a long time in refineries to reduce our energy demands. We’re also doing that in chemical plants. We have some very innovative ways of addressing the use of energy in the upstream as well, including a platform that we use offshore which is self-powered through solar and wind energy. All of these things contribute to our own ability to cut our demand, as well as help our customers figuring out how to be more efficient themselves. |