Carol Howle has been tasked by the new boss at BP to take the energy giant’s shipping activities towards net zero emissions.
In a significant announcement yesterday, BP’s new CEO Bernard Looney has said he will make the company net zero on an absolute basis by 2050 or sooner. Also of note for the cargoes carried by tanker owners across the world, BP vowed yesterday to deliver a 50% cut in the carbon intensity of the products it sells by 2050 or sooner.
Looney also unveiled a restructuring of the company, whereby BP’s existing, largely autonomous business segments – upstream and downstream – will be dismantled and the group reorganised globally into a more focused and more integrated entity, comprising 11 teams with Howle in charge of the newly designated Shipping & Trading business. Howle has been with BP for the last 20 years and became CEO of BP Shipping in 2018.
Looney, who took over from Bob Dudley this month, said yesterday: “The world’s carbon budget is finite and running out fast; we need a rapid transition to net zero. We all want energy that is reliable and affordable, but that is no longer enough. It must also be cleaner. To deliver that, trillions of dollars will need to be invested in replumbing and rewiring the world’s energy system. It will require nothing short of reimagining energy as we know it.”
