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As Chief Scientist for Biosciences, I lead the company’s strategic thinking and innovation agenda in this domain. Working with researchers in bio-technology within Shell, as well as with partners from top universities and institutes around the world, my organisation focusses on areas such as bioenergy, the use of natural ecosystems as carbon sinks and developing chemicals from renewable feedstocks.

We identify, de-risk and bring to commercial maturities technology to produce better biofuels, including sustainable aviation fuels, and grow the availability of carbon credits². We help the agriculture sector decarbonise by deploying technologies that increase carbon storage in biomass and soils, while supporting food security.

By 2030, we want to increase the availability and integrity of carbon credits from the agricultural sectors by accelerating innovation in several key areas shown on the right. We do this though our own R&D programmes and by collaborating with companies and research institutions that have innovative technologies.

Select Carbon, a Shell-owned company based in Australia, develops and manages projects with landholders who undertake new management practices to increase carbon stored in vegetation and soil. Select Carbon works with farmers to increase soil carbon with alternative grazing practices. These nature-based projects are designed to achieve broader benefits in ecosystems services, productivity and risk management while supporting communities and improving biodiversity.

Methane is also an important, and very potent, greenhouse gas to mitigate, and plays a big role in agricultural decarbonisation. Rice cultivation, the predominant agricultural practice, makes up 12% of global methane emissions – and about 1.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions³. My team is involved in several R&D projects for rice cultivation. These projects replaces the traditional continuous flooding method for rice cultivation with an intermittent flooding technique. This allows for controlled irrigation and drainage according to rice growth which saves water and reduces methane emissions, while increasing productivity.

Quality and integrity are essential. Carbon credits need to have a robust carbon benefit but also deliver positive biodiversity and community impacts. For the projects we invest in, we work closely with local partners to ensure these standards are upheld. We also leverage our strengths in technology to improve project monitoring and reporting, such as deploying advanced technologies like hyperspectral imaging, carbon flux towers and environmental DNA.

One of the challenges of agricultural nature-based solutions (NBS) is being able to quantify the amount of carbon taken up in, say, a farmer's field. Existing techniques are time consuming or require costly equipment. We teamed up with researchers at the University of Exeter, �鶹��ý, to develop a low-cost device that records just how much carbon is taken up as the plants grow. With the support of Shell Ventures, this technology is being commercialised by a university spin-out called Quanterra⁴. Providing robust, affordable and timely measurement of ecosystem carbon flows is crucial for society to have confidence in NBS.

In 2022, Shell and Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), USA, launched a joint NBS research programme⁵. Shell has committed at least US$5 million over the next five years in collaborative research projects on NBS with the university’s, leveraging part of its 300 ha of land devoted to farm research. Together, we investigate the role that soil microbes play in converting organic plant matter into stable carbon. We use advanced e-DNA sequencing to establish which microbes are present and which bio-transformations they bring about. We are also investigating the role that soil amendments, such as adding biochar to the soil, could play in enhancing natural greenhouse gas sequestration.

These are just a few examples of what Shell is working on today – together with our partners. Many more solutions will be required to make the agriculture sector more sustainable. This is why Shell teamed-up with THRIVE in launching the Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge⁶ to identify and support top start-up and scale-up innovators who are driving the global transformation to climate-smart agriculture practices. We are delighted to work with THRIVE to fund and de-risk solutions that enhance land, help better measure and quantify soil and improve the farmer’s access to carbon markets and carbon financing.

¹ _{Shell’s operating plan, outlook and budgets are forecasted for a ten-year period and are updated every year. Our current operating plans do not reflect our 2050 net-zero emissions target. Read the full disclaimer on www.shell.com/our-climate-target}
² _{Carbon credits are certificates representing quantities one tonne of carbon dioxide, or in some markets, carbon dioxide equivalent gases that have been kept out of the air or removed from it. McKinsey estimates that in 2020, buyers retired 95 million carbon credits. The volume of VCM credits could increase by 15 times from 2020 to 2030. Sources: ;}

³ _{World Wildlife Fund, “Innovation in Reducing Methane Emissions from the Food Sector: Side of rice, hold the methane”,}

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5 See paper “A new strategic partnership for research into nature- based solutions” on /energy-and-innovation/shell-techxplorer-digest-pathways-to-decarbonisation.html
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