Shell CEO: Climate debate ‘gone to la-la land’

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said the discussion around climate change has “gone to la-la land” for energy giants that have been demonized.

“Let me very very clear, for us climate change is real, and it’s a threat that we want to act on,” van Beurden said in an interview with The Washington Post.

{mosads}”We’re not aligning with skeptics,” he added.

Still, the debate does not align with “reality,” van Beurden said, because demand will double in the first half of the century.

“We cannot deny very very large parts of the global population the story of standards that we enjoy,” van Beurden told the Post, adding that to “demonize” international oil companies “is not going to be a solution.”

Van Beurden called the discussion “dysfunctional” and said energy companies retreated because there was “no repetitional upside in it.”

“So the discussion has gone into la-la land a little,” he said. “I think there is a responsibility for us to reengage — maybe as part of a wider coalition with partners, academia, regulators, also NGOs with societal interest very much at the forefront — and see what would be good policy.”

Environmentalists have urged the administration to steer clear of fossil fuels and adopt a “best of the above,” rather than “all of the above” energy strategy.

While President Obama has crafted a detailed climate agenda and carbon pollution standards for power plants, he supports natural gas and touts the U.S. oil and gas boom as a product of his policies.