Posted by John Donovan: 13 November 2024
What a victory for the planet! Shell, our favorite corporate climate warrior, has scored big in Dutch court, overturning a pesky 2021 ruling that dared to order them to cut emissions by 45% by 2030. Because, honestly, who needs court-mandated carbon cuts when you’re already hard at work planning hundreds of new oil and gas projects?
The original ruling, if you can believe it, had the nerve to suggest that Shell should align with the Paris Agreement and actually reduce emissions, you know, like those climate activists keep yelling about. Friends of the Earth Netherlands even had 17,000 co-plaintiffs arguing that Shell’s relentless fossil fuel production might just be making the climate crisis worse. But Shell’s appeal argued that emissions are a political issue, not a corporate one—because apparently, “saving the planet” is above Shell’s pay grade.
Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan could hardly contain his excitement, calling the decision “the right one for the global energy transition, the Netherlands, and our company.” (Notice the “and” there, like the planet came in as a casual afterthought.) In a heartfelt statement, Sawan reminded us all that Shell is, in fact, committed to “making good progress” and aims to “deliver more value with less emissions.” Because if there’s one thing Shell knows how to do, it’s deliver value—especially to top shareholders like BlackRock, who, no doubt, are just thrilled to see the stock rise as Shell continues to “go green.”
Friends of the Earth Netherlands, who seemed to think Shell should be held accountable for climate change, were understandably less enthusiastic. Donald Pols from the group admitted that “this hurts,” but vowed to continue challenging “major polluters, such as Shell.” Good luck with that, Donald! Shell’s got money, oil, and enough court victories to keep drilling ‘til the North Pole melts.
Of course, Shell’s climate defense has been truly inspiring: they argued that if they don’t drill for fossil fuels, some other company will, so what’s the big deal? Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, brought data showing Shell’s renewables are still overshadowed by their oil projects, but apparently, the court wasn’t convinced. Instead, they left Shell with a vague “special responsibility” to the planet—but who can quantify that, really?
And so Shell marches on, now free to burn, drill, and expand as it pleases, with plans to “reduce the carbon intensity” of their products a bit by 2030 and become “net zero” by 2050. Because why settle for real change when you can just slap a “net zero” label on it and call it a day?
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