By Kelly Gilblom: 22 October 2019, 00:01 BST

Group of 300 British lawmakers seeking fossil fuel divestment

Dumping shares could restrict companies’ access to new capital

A group of 300 British politicians are pushing the trustees of the Parliamentary Pension Fund to sell shares of BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to ward off the risks of climate change.

The group, organized by environmental non-profit 350.org, adds to pressure on the fossil fuel industry. Over the last two weeks, climate change activists from the group Extinction Rebellion have disrupted London by blocking roads and climbing on commercial airplanes. Just weeks before that, an estimated 7.6 million people globally took to the streets to protest continually rising emissions. read more

The Sunday Times

Investors turn fossil fuels into dinosaurs

Bank of England governor Mark Carney sent shock waves through the City four years ago by warning that investors in fossil fuel companies faced “potentially huge” losses from vast reserves that could become “literally unburnable”.

Fear among investors is evident in the oil giants’ share prices. read more

Message sent to all members of the Guardian newspaper

This week we are running a powerful new series called The polluters, in which The Guardian’s team of environmental journalists around the world have investigated the impact of the fossil fuel industry — as well as the structures behind it — which are driving the climate emergency.

The reporting reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. In a video explainer, the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, details how these firms have continued to expand their operations despite being aware of the industry’s devastating impact on the planet since at least the 1950s, and this excellent timeline shows the shocking levels of denial. read more

Greenpeace activists took to the stage at the Oil and Money conference last night

by Allister Thomas:09/10/2019, 7:48 am Updated: 09/10/2019, 9:55 am

Climate activists halted an awards ceremony involving the chief executives of oil majors BP and Shell at a major industry conference last night.

Greenpeace protestors entered the annual Oil and Money conference dinner brandishing a banner describing the two firms as “climate criminals”.

They took to the stage as the Executive of the Year award was due to pass from BP CEO Bob Dudley to Shell’s Ben van Beurden.

In the lead up to the conference, protests were also staged outside the Intercontinental London Park Lane where it was held, describing the event as a “climate crime scene”.

It comes after the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre ended their partnerships with BP and Shell respectively last week. read more

The National Theatre is to end funding from oil giant Shell after declaring a climate emergency.

4 Oct 2019

Shell was one of 19 companies holding a corporate gold membership, meaning it contributed between £15,000-£30,000 per year to the London theatre.

“The scale of the change required means we are already scrutinising every part of the way we operate,” the venue said.

The move comes days after the Royal Shakespeare Company ended its partnership with BP.

Shell’s current contribution to the National is on a smaller scale than the BP deal, which subsidised £5 tickets for young people to visit the RSC. read more

The move comes just days after the Royal Shakespeare Company ended its ties with multinational oil giant BP.

The National Theatre has ended its relationship with oil company Shell after declaring a “climate emergency”.

The move by the London-based performance venue comes just days after the Royal Shakespeare Company ended its ties with multinational BP.

In a statement, the National Theatre said: “Shell have been valued and long-standing supporters of the National Theatre, most recently as corporate members – this membership will come to an end in June 2020.”

In declaring a climate emergency, the theatre said evidence of “catastrophic environmental collapse is growing ever clearer, from extreme weather events to widespread extinction of species”. read more

Use your browser to enlarge image

Under pressure on climate, Big Oil pitches to the young

Extract by John Donovan from Reuters article:

“The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, representing 13 major global oil companies, held meetings with around 20 students and young professionals aimed at laying the groundwork for a long-term plan to engage with young people. It took place as top oil company CEOs, including BP Plc’s Bob Dudley and Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Ben van Beurden, met to discuss the industry’s response to climate change, while Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg angrily condemned world leaders and industry for failing to act quickly enough on the issue.” read more

Reporting by Ron Bousso, additional reporting by Jennifer Hiller in Houston; Editing by Susan Fenton and Louise Heavens: Sept 6, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Major oil companies have approved $50 billion of projects since last year that will not be economically viable if governments implement the Paris Agreement on climate change, think-tank Carbon Tracker said in a report published on Friday.

The analysis found that investment plans by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), BP (BP.L) and ExxonMobil (XOM.N) among other companies will not be compatible with the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. read more

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor

September 6 2019, 12:01am, The Times

About $50 billion of projects approved by oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell and BP within the past year will fail to deliver economic returns if the world meets the Paris climate goals, according to new analysis.

Shell’s huge Canadian liquefied natural gas project, approved last October, and BP’s latest Azerbaijan oil development, approved in April, are among projects that risk becoming “stranded assets”, according to Carbon Tracker, a not-for-profit think tank, which aims to “align capital markets with climate reality”. read more

Bloomberg News: Mikael Holter and Christian Wienberg: September 3, 2019 

A $20 billion fund in Denmark, MP Pension, is selling its stakes in the 10 biggest oil companies after deciding they haven’t done enough to live up to climate goals set out in the Paris accord.

The divestment, which represents a total of 644 million kroner (US$95 million), means MP will no longer hold shares in ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, PetroChina, Rosneft, Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Total, Petrobras or Equinor, according to an emailed statement on Tuesday. read more

MP Pension’s board of directors pledged in 2018 to dump all shares in coal, tar sands and oil activities by the end of 2020, and excluded all coal and tar sands companies from its investments last year.

Dutch pension fund blacklists oil companies, including Shell

4 SEPTEMBER 2019 BY RACHEL FIXSEN

The Danish pension fund for academics, MP Pension, has blacklisted 10 of the world’s largest oil firms, a decision that will mean divesting DKK644m (€86m) of stocks.

In addition, the pension fund is considering the impact of divesting from bonds issued by oil firms.

The fund said it wanted to take responsibility for the green transition while securing long-term investment returns.

Anders Schelde, CIO of MP Pension, said: “We do not believe that this sector can deliver a return on a par with the rest of the market in the coming years. read more

Danish pension fund excludes top oil firms on climate concerns

SEPT 3, 2019

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Danish pension fund MP Pension said on Tuesday it would sell its stakes in 10 of the world’s biggest oil firms as it seeks to divest major sources of carbon emissions from its portfolio.

MP Pension said it would sell its stakes in ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, PetroChina, Rosneft, Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Total, Petrobras and Equinor.

“The divestment happens because MP assesses that the companies’ long-term business models are incompatible with the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement,” it said in a statement. read more

Jillian Ambrose: Tue 3 Sep 2019 06.00 BST

The New York Times has scrapped plans to sponsor one of the world’s biggest oil industry conferences after pressure from climate campaigners including Extinction Rebellion. There were protests outside the newspaper’s offices in Manhattan this month over the Oil and Money conference, which is in its 40th year and which green groups have called a “climate crime scene”. According to the event’s website, keynote speakers this year will include Bob Dudley, the chief executive of BP, and Ben van Beurden, the boss of Royal Dutch Shell. read more

Climate-Action 100+, a group of money managers overseeing more than $33 trillion, works to influence the largest corporate emitters of greenhouse gases. So far the organization has persuaded Royal Dutch Shell Plc to set short-term climate targets and publish a report on its lobbying of governments.

Bloomberg: Big Money Starts to Dump Stocks That Pose Climate Risks

After years of meetings and shareholder resolutions, some funds are starting to simply divest from coal and oil stocks.

By Kelly Gilblom: 7 August 2019, 05:01 BST

Earlier this year, one of Meryam Omi’s deputies at Legal & General Investment Management sat down with board members and managers from Exxon Mobil Corp. to discuss how the oil giant could address climate change. LGIM, which manages about $1.3 trillion, is one of Exxon’s top 20 shareholders.

The Exxon delegation listened, but it didn’t accept the suggestions, says Omi, LGIM’s head of sustainability and responsible investment strategy. Around the same time, Exxon persuaded the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to block a shareholder resolution that pushed the oil giant to do more to address climate risks. read more

Europe’s largest oil companies shared a common theme in their latest second-quarter financial reports: Shell, Total and BP all partly blamed tepid gas markets for their lacklustre earnings. Hyped as the fuel of the future, liquefied natural gas (LNG) has become an increasingly tricky commodity for the industry to manage.

This could be because of three powerful economic forces now converging and complicating the outlook for the fuel.

Firstly, producers continue to invest billions of dollars into building new LNG projects, despite a growing glut of supply. read more

SPUTNIK: Shell Stops Sending UK-Flagged Ships Through Strait of Hormuz Over Tanker Seizure by Iran

02.08.2019

Since relations between Iran and the UK further deteriorated following the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ alleged attempt to block a BP tanker traversing the Strait of Hormuz, this British multinational oil and gas conglomerate has not sent tankers there. Its Anglo-Dutch rival has also followed suit.

The gas and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has stated that they’ve ceased sending British-flagged vessels through the key lane for oil shipping, the Strait of Hormuz, amid the UK-Iranian tensions, exacerbated by recent incidents. They, however, will apparently continue using the route. read more