Only collaboration will solve the global warming puzzle

The world has a puzzle to solve, a jigsaw with a spectacular number of pieces to place. If it can succeed it will win a priceless prize: it will achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement, to limit global warming to under 2C. It is the puzzle of the energy transition.

Piecing together a solution is going to be tricky and we at Shell have been trying to make progress as a company. We have a way forward now and I am going to share it with you. But first, the jigsaw.

Part of the challenge is that the world has to stop adding to the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, probably by 2070 according to credible scenarios.

That is hard enough to achieve but there is more to it than that: large parts of the world’s population still live without access to safe, reliable, affordable energy. The world’s population is growing and, as living standards rise, energy demand could double over the course…