Shell and other leading energy groups have abandoned a six-year-long attempt to define a net zero emissions strategy after being told that such a standard would require them to stop developing new oil and gas fields, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Shell, Norway's Aker BP and Canada’s Enbridge have all quit the expert advisory group of Science-Based Targets initiative since late last year, the FT said.
The Science-Based Targets initiative is a leading assessor of company climate goals. In March, the body had proposed new rules to better help companies set high-quality emissions-reduction plans.
The companies quit the initiative as draft standards seen by the FT stated that the companies should not develop "new oil and gas fields" once they submitted a climate plan, or from the end of 2027, whichever was sooner.
The initiative has now "paused" work on the oil and gas standard citing "capacity considerations", but denied this was linked to the oil and gas industry departures, saying there was "no basis in reality for these claims," the FT said.
Shell told the FT that its expert had withdrawn after seeing a draft standard that "did not reflect the industry view in any substantive way," while Aker BP told the newspaper it had left the advisory panel after finding its "ability to influence" the standard "limited."
Shell, Enbridge and the Science-Based Targets initiative did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment, while Aker BP could not be immediately reached.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
(Reuters - Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)