Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- Introduction: Shell to cut 10% of workforce
- Up to 9,000 jobs to go by 2022
- Cost-cutting plan will help push to net-zero
Shell’s job cuts mean that tens of thousands of positions are being lost across the energy industry – due to Covid-19 and the push towards less polluting sources of power.
Bloomberg has the details:
Royal Dutch Shell Plc will cut as many as 9,000 jobs as Covid-19 precipitates a companywide restructuring into low-carbon energy.
Job reductions of 7,000 to 9,000 are expected by the end of 2022, including around 1,500 people taking voluntary redundancy this year, Shell said Wednesday in a statement. The company sees sustainable annual cost savings of $2 billion to $2.5 billion by that time.
LATEST: Shell announces job reductions of 7,000-9,000 by the end of 2022 as #Covid19 spurs a companywide restructuring into low-carbon energy.
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Shell chief Ben van Beurden is also pledging to push governments and regulators towards a low-carbon future.
In an article outlining his net-zero strategy, and the sweeping job cuts, van Beurden says:
We simply have to be better at making decarbonisation a reality in society and that means having a loud, clear voice. If we want to make hydrogen happen, for example, it is not going to be by just building the infrastructure and seeing what happens next. It is going to be by working with decision makers and policy makers so we can find ways forward: what legislation and standards need to be put in place, what bottlenecks need to be cleared.
We cannot just be quiet. If we stay quiet we risk ending up saying: “Well, I am sorry, it didn’t happen because we failed to speak up.” We have to be proactive and help things happen.
