Shell’s 2020 carbon emissions fall on the back of fuel sales drop

Royal Dutch Shell, owner of the world’s largest fuel retail network, said on Thursday its total greenhouse gas emissions dropped 16% in 2020 as oil and gas sales fell sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Shell said in its annual report that total emissions from its oil wells to forecourt fuel sales fell to 1.38 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, from 1.65 billion in 2019.

“One of the major causes of this larger than expected reduction in 2020 was lower demand for energy, especially for oil and gas,” it said.

Energy majors’ climate reporting differs in that some emissions data, for example, the data Shell released on Thursday, includes planet-warming gases from the combustion of fuels they produce themselves plus the oil products they sell but are produced by another company.