Climate change

Imperial has the same concerns as people everywhere – to provide the world with needed energy while reducing GHG emissions. Imperial is committed to taking action on climate change and believes that the long-term objective of a climate change policy should be to reduce the risk of serious impacts to humanity and to ecosystems at minimum societal cost, while recognizing the importance of safe, reliable, affordable and abundant energy for global economic development.

Climate change is a global issue that requires collaboration among governments, companies, consumers and other stakeholders to create meaningful solutions. Imperial engages with a broad range of stakeholders directly and through trade associations to encourage sound policy for addressing climate change risks.

The company believes effective policies are those that:

• Promote global participation;
• Allow market prices to drive the selection of solutions;
• Ensure a uniform and predictable cost of GHG emissions across the economy;
• Minimize complexity and administrative costs;
• Maximize transparency;
• Provide flexibility for future adjustments to react to developments in technology, climate science and policy.

When such principles inform public policy, they minimize overall societal costs and allow markets to determine the technologies that will be most successful. They also help long-term policies align with differing national priorities as well as adapt to new global realities.

Imperial supports an economy-wide price on carbon dioxide emissions as an efficient policy mechanism to address GHG emissions. We also support the Paris Agreement as an important framework.

Read our energy and carbon summary