Shell Chairman expresses climate change fears

Wed 26 January 2005 View all news

Delivering the fourth Greenpeace Business Lecture in January, Lord Oxburgh, chairman of the Shell Group said that taxation and regulatory changes are likely to be needed to tackle the "angry beast" of climate change.

Lord Oxburgh called for more determined action by the UK government to limit carbon emissions.

He said: "Governments in developed countries need to introduce taxes, regulations or plans such as the European Union carbon trading scheme to increase the cost of emitting carbon dioxide."


This is the only way that technologies such as bio-fuel, carbon sequestration, the use of hydrogen as a fuel and wave, tidal, wind and solar power would displace the use of oil, coal and gas. "None of this is going to happen if the market is left to itself," he said.


During his speech, Lord Oxburgh referred to the significant role that biofuels and biomass could play in producing energy for transport, electricity and heating.

He said that in addition to biofuels, hybrid cars were a cost and fuel-efficient way of bridging the gap into a possible future energy economy based on hydrogen.

Related Links

Greenpeace website report



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