What steps need to happen? One step beyond all others: setting an appropriate price for carbon.
Owners can do a lot to enhance their position on the industry’s playing field as it is. We have taken many steps to improve our energy efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint.
We are evaluating the alternative fuels and the myriad tools and technologies that are under development to continue down this path.
Many of our peers are doing the same. These steps can be meaningful for a single actor. From an industry perspective, they are insignificant.
In the big picture, the industry’s playing field must change radically. The best way to accomplish this is a substantial global carbon tax.
A tax will reflect the full costs that society at large — in light of all of the science in hand — is assigning to carbon.
Even if this tax is imperfect or approximate, it is still better than inaction.
With an appropriate price for carbon, all industry constituents will be aligned around rational choices concerning design, investment, operations and reporting that can move the industry more credibly towards 2050 targets.
This is why we believe a carbon tax is essential, and this is where we are focusing our efforts.
