CNN

Shell escaped liability for oil spills in Nigeria for years. Then four farmers took them to court — and won

By Nimi Princewill and Krystina Shveda, CNN: Updated 1540 GMT (2340 HKT) May 25, 2022

Nigeria (CNN)When Nigerian environmental lawyer Chima Williams launched a lawsuit against oil giant Shell plc, he did not envisage a 13-year battle that would lead to a landmark ruling and land him a prestigious environmental award.

Williams, who is the executive director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, successfully convinced the Court of Appeal in the Hague that Shell plc was responsible for the activities of its subsidiary in Nigeria — Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) — and for oil spills that ravaged local farmlands.

The suit against Shell Nigeria was brought by four farmers from the Goi and Oruma communities in the country’s oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta region, who said their farms were left in ruins after major spills from underground pipelines.

The decision to allow Shell plc, formerly known as Royal Dutch Shell plc, to be sued in this jurisdiction set a precedent as it was the first time the Dutch parent company was sued in its home country for the actions of its foreign subsidiary, SPDC.

Shell Nigeria (SPDC) was eventually held liable for the oil spills and ordered to pay damages to the farmers in a January 29, 2021, ruling by the Court of Appeal of the Hague. SPDC was also ordered to carry out an intensive clean-up of the damage to the communities.

Williams was on Wednesday awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in holding the company accountable for the environmental damage. read more

THE TIMES

Investor rebellion over climate change at chaotic Shell AGM

Emily Gosden: Energy Editor: Wednesday May 25 2022

A fifth of Shell shareholders have voted to reject its climate transition plans, almost double the rebellion that it endured a year ago.

The revolt came at a chaotic annual general meeting in London that was delayed for several hours after disruption by environmental protesters. Sir Andrew Mackenzie, Shell’s chairman, called police to clear the room at Central Hall in Westminster and three people were arrested outside the venue.

Shell, Europe’s biggest oil and gas group, is under intense scrutiny by investors and wider society over the speed of its plans to make the transition to cleaner energy. It has committed to eliminating its emissions to net zero by 2050, but faces pressure to make steep cuts in the near term, including from a read more

CNBC

Safety consultant goes viral for leaving Shell after a decade, says ‘core business’ is dangerous

Catherine Clifford: @IN/CATCLIFFORD/@CATCLIFFORD: PUBLISHED TUE, MAY 24 20224:30 PM EDT

• At 8:27 a.m. on Monday morning Caroline Dennett emailed 1,400 executives at the oil and gas conglomerate, Shell, to announce her resignation after 11 years doing safety consulting for the company through her firm, .
• Shell’s internal safety program is dubbed “Goal Zero” and its aim is to have “no harm and no leaks,” Dennett said. “The Goal Zero is honorable, but they don’t equate that to the harms that are being done on a massive scale,” she told CNBC.

At 8:27 a.m. on Monday morning, May 23, Caroline Dennett emailed 1,400 executives at the oil and gas conglomerate, Shell, to announce her resignation after 11 years working as a safety consultant.

Dennett, who is based near London, asked executives and management at Shell “to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they really believe their vision for more oil and gas extraction secures a safe future for humanity.” read more

Shell broadband doesn’t have a category in Trustpilot. Why? Could it be that there are ZERO satisfied customers?

24 MAY 2022

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.

Shell broadband doesn’t have a category…

Shell broadband doesn’t have a category in trust pilot. Why?
Could it be that there were ZERO satisfied customers since their takeover of various broadband ISP’s? Certainly there seems to be someone (apparently from shell bband) monitoring the 1 star reviews and complaints here in the shell energy category. read more

By John Donovan: Tuesday 23 May 2022

During the Q&A session at the Shell Plc Annual General Meeting held today in London, a shareholder drew attention to a survey of UK energy companies, the findings of which reflected badly on Shell. 

Shell Energy ranked as one of the worst companies in terms of *customer satisfaction. 

Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden frankly admitted that all is not well at Shell Energy and pledged that remedial action will be taken.

The shellenergy.website publishes related verifiable Trustpilot reviews of Shell Energy on a regular basis.  read more

Reuters

Climate protesters block start of Shell shareholder meeting

By Shadia Nasralla and Ron Bousso:

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – A couple of dozen climate protesters disrupted Shell’s (SHEL.L) annual general meeting (AGM) on Tuesday, chanting slogans and holding banners as Shell Chair Andrew Mckenzie tried to start the meeting.

Shell is due to ask its shareholders to vote on a resolution supporting its climate strategy and rebuff a climate resolution from activists, another iteration of which garnered 30% of votes at last year’s AGM. read more

Breaking News: Security Fiasco at Shell AGM. 

11.15 am 24 May 2022

Shell Plc Chairman Sir Andrew Mackenzie announced to assembled shareholders that the AGM meeting is halted because protestors have superglued themselves to seats. 

Does the question, therefore, arise of how the activists managed to smuggle superglue into the AGM? The possibility must have been considered bearing in mind that the same superglue tactics have been used previously on a number of occasions by protestors at the Shell Centre building and reported extensively by the news media? read more

TUESDAY 24 MAY 2022 11:03 AM

CITYA.M.

Total chaos at Shell’s AGM as 70+ activists bring meeting to complete standstill, chairman McKenzie unable to restore order

MICHIEL WILLEMS

Reports are coming in that about 70 people have taken over Shell’s AGM and brough the meeting to a complete standstill.

Shell Chairman Sir Andrew McKenzie was forced to halt the meeting, taking place in London this morning. He is currently sitting behind his desk on stage with no action taken.

Numerous activists are accusing Shell’s board and shareholders of “ignoring the United Nations” and “ignoring ordinary people”.

McKenzie is trying to restore order, without success so far. read more

24 May 2022: 10.22

Shell Plc Chairman Sir Andrew Mackenzie calls in the police to quell shareholder rebellion at AGM 

Sir Andrew asks the police to “come in and settle the meeting down so we can continue with proceedings.” 

In the meantime, the meeting is halted. 

Protestors chant that “SHELL MUST FALL” 

THE MEETING OFFICIALLY PAUSED AT 10.35 am. 

Isn’t one of Shell’s carbon offsets projects fundamentally flawed?

Peru’s Cordillera Azul National Park was established years before the project started, raising doubts how CO2 sequestered there is “additional”

Oil and gas company Shell, holding its AGM tomorrow, claims that customers can drive “carbon neutral” or buy “carbon neutral” liquified natural gas because it purchases carbon credits from various offsetting projects around the world, one of them dubbed “Cordillera Azul, Peru” in the remote Amazon. The project, from which numerous other companies buy credits too, supports “a rich ecosystem of indigenous biodiversity, high carbon stock forests,” shell.com states. “A multicultural population of more than 250,000 people organised in 400 communities live in the buffer zone around the Park boundaries. By 2021, [the project] aims to have protected 1.6 million hectares of threatened forest and 28 high conservation value species, supported 716 jobs and created or supported 24 sustainable enterprises.” read more

Bloomberg

Shell Climate Case to Return to Focus at Annual Shareholder Meeting

Laura Hurst, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) — Climate issues are set to take center stage at Shell Plc’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, with a key group saying the energy giant isn’t abiding by a landmark court order requiring it to cut emissions by 45% by 2030.  

Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, says Shell’s plans around customer-related emissions — which make up the bulk of its pollution — aren’t in line with last year’s judgment. The group originally brought the case against the company.

“The judge’s verdict is clear and necessary: Shell must stop causing dangerous climate change,” said campaign spokesperson Nine de Pater, who plans to attend the meeting in London as a proxy shareholder.  read more

23 MAY 2022

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.

We have just moved house and gone with…

We have just moved house and gone with shell broadband, the signal is pants out of 6 days of it we have had signal for 1 day, took me 55mins on the phone just to get somebody to speak to me and couldn’t do anything about it, arranged a call back next day and that night we had a clean signal but nothing since. I just want to leave now cos this is costing me for something I can’t receive. read more

Contractor quitting puts Shell in spotlight over climate

A longtime contractor for Shell has accusing the oil and gas company of “double talk” by saying it wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions while working on tapping new sources of fossil fuel

BERLIN — A longtime contractor for Shell has publicly called out the oil and gas company’s climate plans, accusing the company of “double talk” by saying it wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions while working on tapping new sources of fossil fuel. read more

skynews

They’re ignoring all the alarms’: Contractor resigns from Shell with warning to staff about ‘extreme harm’ to planet

Caroline Dennett told Sky News that working for Shell was no longer morally compatible with her beliefs about how best to protect the planet and the people who live on it.

Hannah Thomas-Peter: Climate change correspondent @hannahtpsky: Monday 23 May 2022 15:44, UK

A safety consultant who spent more than a decade working as a contractor for Shell has publicly resigned, claiming the oil and gas company is causing “extreme harm” to the planet. read more

The Guardian

Shell consultant quits, accusing firm of ‘extreme harms’ to environment

Alex Lawson Energy correspondent: Mon 23 May 2022 13.09 BST

A senior safety consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the environment.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others in the oil and gas industry to “walk away while there’s still time”. read more

Shell boss Ben van Beurden slammed for reaping more than £18m ahead of possible shareholder rebellion

By FRANCESCA WASHTELL, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 21:51, 21 May 2022 | UPDATED: 11:34, 22 May 2022

Shell boss Ben van Beurden has been slammed for reaping more than £18million ahead of a possible shareholder rebellion this week. 

Calculations by The Mail on Sunday show that the Dutch businessman – who has led Shell since 2014 – has seen the valuations of his shares and other payments soar.  read more