(THE GUARDIAN) — The former chairman of Shell UK has argued the entire oil and gas industry needs to “strengthen its voice” in its response to climate change and step up efforts to develop low carbon technologies.
Writing in BusinessGreen, James Smith, who now serves as chairman of green consultancy Carbon Trust, warns that the increasingly high-profile divestment and “unburnable carbon” campaigns had focused attention on whether oil and gas companies can survive in their current form.
He argues that “if costly climate damage is to be avoided, these companies will have to change profoundly over the next couple of decades”, adding that as such each oil and gas major needs to develop its “own low carbon product strategy”.
