UN Sustainable Development Goals
The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seek to address the world’s biggest challenges. We welcome the SDGs and will play our part in helping governments and societies to achieve them.
We believe that as we work to deliver more value with less emissions, we must also carefully manage our impact on the environment, people and communities. In this way, we can help directly contribute some of the , while indirectly contributing to others.
People's lives are better with energy. We help to power lives by providing vital energy for homes, businesses and transport, including for cooking, heating and lighting. Energy is also used to provide essential services, such as health care, and manufactured products which society consumes daily. Shell delivers energy for millions of people around the world every day and is working to help provide energy to those who do not yet have it.
Shell’s target is to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050. We believe this target supports the more ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, to limit the rise in the global average temperature this century to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Our commitment to contribute to sustainable development has been part of the Shell General Business Principles since 1997. We have embedded this sustainability commitment into our strategy, business processes and decision-making, supported by comprehensive governance structures, policies and standards. Our approach to sustainability takes into account the impacts, risks and opportunities related to climate, nature, safety, ethics, people and communities -from the global to the local level.
More in our approach to sustainability
Page last updated: March 25, 2025