How an Energy Giant Plans for the Future

The Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, and his Vice President for the Global Business Environment, Jeremy Bentham, stopped by CSIS earlier today to discuss the latest iteration of the corporation’s much-lauded scenario planning program. Shell has been using scenarios to plan company strategy for over thirty years (click here to see past scenarios).

The topic of today's discussion was Shell’s two new scenarios for 2050: Blueprints and Scramble. Blueprints outlines a future in which policymakers take the initiative and address issues of energy supply, environmental sustainability, and climate change. While these issues still pose problems, early action partially ameliorates the negative effects and makes the transition to a diverse array of energy sources easier to bear. In Scramble, policymakers fail to enact legislation until the effects of diminishing energy supply and climate change cause significant damages to the economy and the environment. However, these shocks finally spur action, and decision-makers enact sensible policy changes. This brief summary cannot do the scenarios justice; we urge you to look take a more in-depth look here at Royal Dutch Shell’s website.