'The time is over for oily corporations to operate with impunity.'
A group of 27 investors, owning around 5 percent of Shell’s shares, is demanding the multinational improves its environmental targets. The resolution is the biggest such drive to date and was coordinated by the activist group Follow This.
Similar motions have been organised by the group at Shell meetings since 2016. Last year, a resolution put forward by Follow This won the backing of 20 percent of shareholders in what was an eventful AGM where protesters tried to storm the stage.
However, support for the upcoming resolution has drawn the largest number of investment managers, said Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This. It includes Europe’s largest asset manager, Amundi.
The group calls on Shell to align its ‘medium term’ greenhouse gas emission target with the Paris Agreement, to limit global warming. The resolution will be brought to a vote at Shell’s annual general meeting later this year.
The bid to shore up pressure on Shell’s climate commitments comes as its CEO, Wael Sawan, aims to boost the company’s profits, partly by increasing fossil fuel production and slowing down investments in renewables. In October 2023, Shell announced it was to cut at least 15 percent of its low-carbon solutions division workforce and scale back on its hydrogen business.
When Sawan took the helm in January 2023, he promised to revamp Shell’s strategy to focus on higher-margin projects, steady oil output and grow natural gas production. The organisational changes will see 200 jobs cut in 2024, and 130 positions put under review. Staff were reportedly told details about the cuts this week.
On the shareholder resolution, Shell described it as being “unrealistic and simplistic” and “broadly unchanged” from the resolution filed by Follow This last year. “It would have no impact on mitigating climate change, have negative consequences for our customers, and was against the interests of the company and our shareholders,” the company said.
As the oil giant faces criticism over its climate policy and faces calls for stronger targets, environmental campaigners are gathering in the capital today – January 20 – to protest how Shell is pushing forward with their fossil fuel and extraction plans, and “bringing in hordes of wealth whilst we face wildfires, droughts and floods.”
The demonstration is being organised by Fossil Free London, which campaigns to make the UK capital inhospitable to the fossil fuel industry and the banks that fund it.
The ‘Go To Hell Shell’ event is taking place outside the company’s HQ. The campaigners are using the demonstration to film their “Go to Hell, Shell” music video to the tune of Ray Charles’ song “Hit the Road Jack,” with the lyrics updated to reflect what they refer to as Shell’s role in driving the climate crisis.
Left Foot Forward asked Fossil Fuel London their thoughts on the calls for Shell to align its greenhouse emission target with the Paris Agreement. Joanna Warrington, an organiser with the activist group, said:
“Shell is surely getting pretty used to the pressure of climate shareholders. We have crashed their AGMs in our hundreds twice already and the pressure just keeps on coming. It will not stop, because our collapsing ecosystem demands change.
“The time is over for oily corporations to operate with impunity. And no efficient fuels, greenwash announcements, or even shareholder Paris Agreement resolutions will be enough to protect human life until we shut down Shell.”
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
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