The April meeting, in Brussels, of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, which focused on global warming, was yet another awakening for the people of the world. Like the Kyoto Protocol, it will have a far-reaching impact on the way we all live our lives in the years to come.

Carbon dioxide [CO2] has been identified as one of the major causes of global warming and many ways are now being sought not just to reduce CO2 emissions but to capture, isolate and utilise O2 in productive ways.

Shell was one of the first energy companies to develop ways to separate and sequester CO2, using it to enhance oil recovery and improve the production of oil from mature reservoirs.

To help bring CO2-related technology to the Middle East, Shell has been working with partners to develop projects in the region to capture and sequester CO2 emitted from the region’s many oil, gas, power and industrial production facilities, so reducing emissions to the atmosphere.

Shell hopes that this will lead to the implementation of the vision of an integrated regional project to capture CO2 from power plant emissions, and re-use it to increase oil recovery in the region’s oil fields. It is also hoped that gas, currently being used in enhanced oil recovery and reservoir pressure projects, will be made available for use in the community.

So it was very exciting to hear the recent announcement that His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, has called for the establishment of a programme to reduce CO2 emissions and to capture and store CO2 in the UAE. The programme aims to reduce the UAE’s CO2 emissions by as much as 40 per cent, whilst at the same time using the captured CO2 to increase oil production by as much as 10 per cent.

It is this sort of determination and visionary action which, when employed globally, will enable mankind to significantly change the impact of global warming and reduce CO2 emissions.

A potential catastrophe, equal to that of global warming, faced the world in the 1970s when a hole appeared in the earth’s ozone layer. CFCs, or ChloroFluoroCarbons, which were used as refrigerants in refrigerators and freezers, were identified as the major culprits for the damage inflicted on the ozone layer. Unified global action led to the abolishment of CFCs and today the ozone layer is gradually repairing itself and, scientists predict, the ozone layer will be back to normal in another 40 years.

This demonstrates the fact that whilst man is capable of damaging his environment, he can also repair that damage using science and technology, employed on a global scale with the full co-operation of all mankind. It is this worldwide commitment and co-operation that is needed today to reduce CO2 emissions and reverse global warming.

Over the years Shell has been an active supporter of sustainable development and has invested over US $ one billion in the renewable energy industry since 2000 in order to produce energy supplies which will not pollute the atmosphere with CO2. In 1997 Shell formed its Renewables Business which is actively engaged in the development of a wide range of alternative and renewable energy supplies.

These alternatives include wind and solar energy, the conversion of bio-mass, coal and gas to liquid fuels, and the development of hydrogen as a commercially viable energy source which could, in the future, be available to everyone. Shell is also one of the world’s largest developers of wind power projects and, jointly-owned or wholly-owned, Shell projects currently produce a combined 1,100 megawatts of electricity.

The world’s population is today estimated at 6.6 billion people and this is projected to rise to a level of nine billion by the year 2050. This will add another 36 per cent to the world’s population but will add an even higher percentage to the global demand for energy as the world becomes ever-more sophisticated and more and more people demand more and more energy.

To speed up the development of new energy sources, and to continue with the development of existing hydrocarbon resources, the world needs a parallel development of human resources to join the energy sector and to work to develop existing and new energy supplies.

Shell is working very hard to provide opportunities and training for people to become a part of the growing, exciting and vital business of supplying the world’s energy needs. As Shell expands its investments in the Middle East, the need to transfer training, technology and expertise to the people of the region becomes increasingly important.

People are the world’s most valuable asset and it is people who will, ultimately, solve the challenges to the security of the planet, and provide us all with a better environment and standard of living. Shell recognises this fact and considers the development of its own people, and those of its partners, to be a number one priority to ensure a bright future for us all.