Oil giants clearly see what's coming
Re: Shell to slash 9,000 jobs in shift to low-carbon energy, Oct. 1
The loss of 9,000 jobs is a heartbreaking statistic, however, it has been egregiously blamed on the shift to low-carbon energy rather than the current slumping market demand for oil and gas.
Due to coronavirus, lower output has caused many companies to look inward for relief, looking for “redundancies” or as Shell CEO Ben van Beurden puts it, “too many layers.”
To blame this job loss on the potential future green shift of Shell is like blaming the rain on the person buying the umbrella.
Instead, what we should be doing is holding the government to its promise of phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by 2025.
Rather than paying oil and gas companies billions to lay off citizens, we could be using that money to retrain and re-educate those facing unemployment in anticipation of capturing a part of the estimated $26 trillion worth of climate-focused growth by 2030.
We can choose to stay out in the storm if we like.
But many are coming to realize that the future demands a different way of doing things.
Mark Taylor, Calgary