Costing carbon

Costing carbon

We have a responsibility to use engineering talent to stop carbon being released into the atmosphere and to remove what’s already there. The North Sea better do it quickly or it will face the future like a dinosaur observing a fast-approaching space object. Not only are we seeing a rapid decline in appetite for oil and gas projects, but also UN climate predictions suggest we need to reduce the carbon in our atmosphere by a compounded 7.6% annually for the next decade.

It is not responsible to argue that the world can yet do without hydrocarbons nor that we should stop producing all domestic reserves and rely on unstable regimes with questionable environmental records to sell us energy no questions asked. We must use our expertise, our resources, and our ethical standards to ensure an orderly, rapid and just transition with the utmost respect for the consequences of our actions.