Climate Rules May Prompt Higher Shell Internal Carbon Price

Shell says it may increase its internal carbon emissions price if governments tighten climate rules, Bloomberg reports.

Angus Gillespie, Shell vice president of CO2, says the oil company budgets for new projects on the assumption it will pay $40 a metric ton for carbon emissions. Climate policies can cost potential projects “hundreds of millions of dollars,” Gillespie tells Bloomberg. “There are opportunities that we have not progressed because of the $40 a ton levy.”

This statement comes as the Obama administration announces new climate rules to limit power plants’ carbon pollution.

European Union emission costs may reach 30 euros ($41) a ton by the next decade, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Shell is one of more than two dozen major companies — including Walmart, BP, ExxonMobil and General Electric — that have integrated a price on carbon emissions into their long-term business plans, according to a CDP report. In 2013, 28 companies based or operating in the US disclosed that they use an internal carbon price in their financial planning. While Shell and BP use a cost of $40 per metric ton, ExxonMobil assumes a cost of $60 per metric ton.