[1/11] A climate activist is removed after disrupting Shell’s annual general meeting May 23, 2023 in London, Britain. Portal/Ron Bousso
- AGM delayed by protests
- The climate activists’ resolution gets 20% of the vote
LONDON, May 23 (Portal) – Security guards protected Shell CEO (SHEL.L) Wael Sawan and company leaders as climate protesters attempted to enter the stage at the energy giant’s annual shareholder meeting in London on Tuesday.
The session opened after a one-hour hiatus as protesters were dispersed by dozens of security forces. At one point, security guards formed a human chain on the stage to protect executives and directors from the protesters.
“Go to hell Shell and don’t come back,” sang a chorus of about a dozen protesters as they called on Shell to end fossil fuel production while Sawan and Chairman Andrew Mackenzie looked on.
“We’ve heard that point many times by now,” Mackenzie told the protesters. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have this debate instead of saying the same thing over and over again.”
He added that Shell’s investments in lower-carbon solutions, which yield lower returns than oil and gas projects, show the company takes climate change seriously.
Shell, which reported record profits of $40 billion last year, and other major hydrocarbon producers argue they must help meet ever-rising demand for oil and gas.
A company spokesman said the protesters were “not interested in constructive engagement,” citing Shell’s plans to become a zero-carbon company by 2050.
The company also struggles with an increasingly vocal minority of institutional shareholders who say it needs to act faster on climate change while balancing pressure from other investors to turn oil and gas into profits.
Preliminary figures showed that a fifth of Shell shareholders voted in favor of the resolution tabled by activist group Follow This, calling on the company to set more ambitious emissions targets. The decision was rejected by Shell’s board of directors.
The resolution reflects a ruling by a Dutch court that asked Shell to increase its climate targets. Shell has appealed the verdict.
Shell’s own climate strategy resolution received 80% of the vote, as it did last year.
“The silent majority is making it very clear to us what their expectations are… to find a balanced transition,” Sawan told reporters after the meeting.
Scientists say the world needs to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by about 43% by 2030 from 2019 levels to have any chance of meeting the Paris Agreement target of less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) warming above pre-industrial levels.
Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Edited by Jason Neely
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Shadia Nasralla
Ron Bousso