RDSA Royal Dutch Shell A

   By Maitane Sardon 
 

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) said Monday that it will invest $300 million in the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems over the next three years as part of its goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 2-3%.

Shell said it plans to invest in forests, wetlands and other natural ecosystems around the world. It said it will collaborate with the Dutch state forestry service to plant over 5 million trees in the Netherlands over the next 12 years. It also plans to plant 300,000 trees in the Spanish region of Castile and Leon by the end of 2019.

Elsewhere, Shell will invest in 200 new rapid electric-vehicle charge-points powered by renewable energy in its gas stations in the Netherlands, it said. These will add to the 500 ultra-fast chargers the company is already installing across Europe.

From April 17, Shell said it will give its customers filling up their tanks at its service stations in the Netherlands the option to offset their carbon emissions by buying credits to support environmental projects.

This will be done at no extra cost for those who choose Shell V-Power petrol or diesel, while those who fill up their tanks with regular Shell petrol or diesel will be asked at the counter whether they would like to offset their emissions for an additional 1 European cent a liter. The money drivers pay for the credits will be invested in projects such as tree planting.

Shell, which together with Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), BP PLC (BP.LN), Total SA (FP.FR) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) accounts for 10% of global oil output, said in 2018 that it would provide three- to five-year targets beginning in 2020 to reduce its net carbon footprint on an annual basis. It plans to incorporate the targets into a revised remuneration policy for executives, which will be subject to a shareholder vote in 2020.

According to environmental disclosure charity CDP, Shell is one of the top three companies best prepared for the low-carbon transition among the 24 largest and highest-impact publicly traded oil-and-gas companies.

However, oil companies' recent commitments to green investors remain modest and expenditure in alternative energies for the oil-and-gas sector is still low at $22 billion in 2018, CDP said.

Write to Maitane Sardon at maitane.sardon@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 08, 2019 11:41 ET (15:41 GMT)

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