Climate change
Sustainable development goals
Safety
About our data
UN sustainable development goals
The UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) seek to address the world’s biggest challenges, including ending poverty, improving health and education, making cities sustainable and tackling climate change.
Governments are responsible for prioritising and implementing approaches that meet the SDGs but achieving these tasks will require unprecedented collaboration and collective action with business and civil society.
All the goals are relevant to Shell and we have an important role to play in supporting these ambitions. We can make the greatest contribution to three goals: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy (Goal 7), Decent work and economic growth (Goal 8) and Climate action (Goal 13). For information on Shell’s actions that support other goals, please visit www.shell.com/sdgs.
Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
Employment is a critical route out of poverty and helps people towards prosperity.
We provide jobs and follow applicable labour, health and safety standards. We work with governments and others to offer training to build local skills and expertise. We encourage local businesses to be part of our supply chain and seek to ensure our suppliers meet Shell standards.
We also support entrepreneurs and help young people start their own businesses through social investment programmes such as Shell LiveWIRE.
We contribute to economic growth by paying taxes and royalties to local governments. In December 2019, we published a new report detailing the corporate income tax that Shell companies paid in countries and locations around the world in 2018.
For more information on our approach, see Contribution to society.
Goal 13: Climate action
The world needs to take action to tackle climate change. The Paris Agreement set a goal of holding the rise in global average temperature this century to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Everyone in society has a role to play to achieve the Paris goals, and Shell intends to play its part. We continue to work towards delivering on our Net Carbon Footprint ambition to cut the intensity of the greenhouse gas emissions of the energy products we sell by around 50% by 2050, and 20% by 2035 compared with our 2016 levels, in step with society.
We only control the emissions from our own activities, but by changing the mix of energy products we supply, we also aim to help customers to lower their emissions. For example, by continuing to increase the lower-emission energy products we offer, including natural gas, biofuels, hydrogen and renewable power. We also aim to invest more in natural ecosystems to help drivers and businesses offset their carbon emissions.
For more information on our approach, see Climate change and energy transition.
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy
Globally, around 850 million people live without access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2019, and hundreds of millions more are estimated to have an unreliable supply. Access to reliable and safe energy is critical to enabling economic and social development.
Our contribution to Goal 7 includes investments in companies that offer innovative energy access solutions, such as solar mini-grids and solar home systems. We continue working to achieve our ambition to provide a reliable electricity supply to 100 million people, primarily in Africa and Asia, by 2030.
For more information on our approach, see Access to energy.
