By Karin Goodwin Reporter: 19 Jan 2020

A GROUNDBREAKING legal case being taken against oil company Shell could have dramatic consequences for the Dutch company’s Scottish North Sea operations, it has been claimed by environmental organisations.

The legal action, being led by Friends of the Earth (FOE) Netherlands on behalf of more than 30,000 people from 70 countries, aims to compel the company to “cease its destruction of the climate”.

Plaintiffs in the case argue that Shell is violating its duty of care and threatening human rights by knowingly undermining the world’s chances to stay below 1.5C, the level agreed to be critical by the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. read more

Natural gas output at Europe’s largest onshore gas field, the Netherlands’ Groningen, continued to fall sharply in December following the Dutch government’s tightening of the production quota, with volumes down 43% year on year.

The rapidly declining output at the field has eaten away at Dutch gas stocks, which have now fallen below Gas Year 2018 levels and are well below the European average.

A production cap has been put in place to prevent earthquakes linked to gas extraction at Groningen and the Dutch government plans to phase out gas extraction at the field completely by mid-2022. read more

16 Jan 2020

Extinction Rebellion protesters have blocked the entrances to Shell’s Aberdeen headquarters.

Activists arrived at the Altens base at about 06:30 and plan to remain at the site all day “to hold Shell to account”.

The group says the protest is part of its two-week long campaign targeting the fossil fuel industry.

Shell said it was addressing its emissions and helping customers to reduce theirs.

The protesters plan to walk through Aberdeen city centre, starting at the railway station at 13:00 then going via Union St and the harbour.

The group also has its purple boat at the site. read more

Extinction Rebellion: The more successful fossil fuel companies like Shell are, the worse our future is going to be.

Climate change activists have blocked the entrance to the headquarters of oil giant Shell in Aberdeen.

Extinction Rebellion Scotland members began their protest at the premises on Altens Farm Road at 6.30am on Thursday and said they plan to stay there all day.

The group say they have secured the entrances with lock-on equipment and the main entrance with XR Scotland’s big purple boat, named Amal Gous.

Harm

They said they plan to shut the building down to disrupt business and hold Shell to account for its role in the climate crisis. read more

Members of the Extinction Rebellion activist group have “blockaded” Shell’s regional headquarters in Aberdeen.

Protestors said they have secured the entrances with locking equipment, and have blockaded the main gate with Extinction Rebellion’s boat, named Amal Gous.

The organisation said it intends to carry out the climate protest at the Tullos base “all day, with the aim of shutting the building down to disrupt business as usual”.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said they have been made aware and are monitoring the situation.

Extinction Rebellion said its “Red Rebel Brigade” will also be in attendance, with a protest to take place in the city centre, starting at the train station at 1pm before moving on to Union Street and then Aberdeen Harbour. read more

The oil majors, particularly in Europe, are ploughing billions into green energy projects. However, their efforts to reduce emissions often look like window dressing.

Royal Dutch Shell spends about $3 billion on its low carbon and electricity businesses, which is roughly a tenth of its research and development budget.

BP said this week it hoped to create five billion-dollar green energy businesses by 2025. But many of its green initiatives are designed to prolong the life of its oil and gasfields, by boosting productivity at wells and managing carbon more efficiently. BP and Shell won’t be abandoning fossil fuels any time soon. read more

Last year, BP agreed to report in detail on how its investments are compatible with the Paris climate agreement after shareholders supported a resolution proposed by the activist group. It has also extracted pledges from Royal Dutch Shell and commodities giant Glencore. “This announcement from BlackRock will lead to some uncomfortable shuffling in the board rooms of Big Oil…

The addition of the world’s largest fund manager is a significant milestone for Climate Action 100+, bringing total assets under management by its members to more than $41 trillion. The group already has some notable victories in its campaign of engagement with corporate giants that account for more than two-thirds of global industrial emissions.

Last year, BP agreed to report in detail on how its investments are compatible with the Paris climate agreement after shareholders supported a resolution proposed by the activist group. It has also extracted pledges from Royal Dutch Shell and commodities giant Glencore. read more

Extracts from a letter published by The Independent on 8 Jan 2020.  

Donnachadh McCarthy highlights the feeble arguments presented by Shell to Greta Thunberg in defence of their policies (Oil companies like Shell could destroy humanity as we know it – but not if we make fossil-fuel investments illegal, Voices 8 January).

The blood of middle East wars is on the hands of major oil companies, but ours too, as we are lazily dependent on cheap dirty energy.

Our planet didn’t choose to self-harm. We are the ones who became addicted to oil, electricity and plastic… read more

06 Jan 2020

Seven people have been arrested after environmental activists took part in an “extended occupation” of a drilling rig in Dundee harbour.

Three female protesters from Extinction Rebellion Scotland climbed onto Valaris’s Ensco 122 from the River Tay.

They climbed halfway up one of the legs of the rig to try to prevent it leaving.

The women came down about five hours later due to deteriorating weather conditions.

Police said seven people had been arrested in total. read more

The climate column: Compulsory and voluntary carbon exposure declarations are a joke. It is time for governments to unite and take the kind of action the planet desperately needs

In 1991, Shell produced an internal film outlining the dangers of climate change, predicting famines, floods and millions of climate refugees, if the world did not stop burning fossil fuels.

But instead of listening to its own scientists, it continued to invest billions in fossil fuels...

• Donnachadh McCarthy @DonnachadhMc
• :Dec 8, 2020

“It is now too late to leave”…

Imagine living in East Gippsland, Australia, with your family and hearing this message in the middle of an apocalyptic Australian fire-storm.

But this emergency warning delivered to terrified Australians trapped by fires on beaches in pitch blackness, with ash and fiery embers raining down on them, is also a message to humanity.

We are teetering on the edge of the climate precipice; it may already be too late to pull us back.

The rate that we are increasing fossil fuel usage rather than slashing it, means that our remaining carbon budget to avoid breaching a 1.5C rise in global temperatures will be bust in just eight years. read more

January 6, 2020 – SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, co-leading a coalition of 13 states, filed an amicus brief supporting the State of Rhode Island in its lawsuit State of Rhode Island v. Shell Oil Products Company LLC et al. In the lawsuit, the state seeks to hold oil companies accountable for their actions contributing to climate change and the resulting harms from sea-level rise, changes to the hydrologic cycle, and increased air and ocean temperatures. read more

LNG Canada, which is also under construction, is said to be the largest private sector investment in Canadian history, with a price tag of around $40 billion and is being developed by a Royal Dutch Shell-led consortium.

Canada’s multi-billion LNG Canada project is facing fresh trouble, as work on a key artery linking the export facility near Kitimat, B.C. to natural gas resources in Dawson Creek area is being halted by First Nations groups.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, representing all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, said over the weekend that they issued an eviction notice to the Coastal GasLink pipeline company, which is building the $6.6 billion project.

LNG Canada, which is also under construction, is said to be the largest private sector investment in Canadian history, with a price tag of around $40 billion and is being developed by a Royal Dutch Shell-led consortium. The project will export Canadian natural gas to Asian markets. read more

06 JAN 2020

Three members of the group have scaled the Valaris 122 rig as part of 10 days of “solidarity actions”.

Extinction Rebellion said they are prepared to “stay up there for as long as possible to stop the rig leaving the harbour”.

Industry body Oil and Gas UK condemned the action as a “dangerous and short-sighted stunt”.

Forth Ports, owner of the Port of Dundee, said it had deployed a pilot boat to Alexandra Wharf, where the rig is berthed, and will stay on site as a precaution while they liaise with the rig owners and relevant authorities. read more

Neil Munshi in Eleme, Nigeria:29 Dec 2019

Local people’s lack of faith is rooted in decades of mistrust in the authorities. In the 1990s, writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) led non-violent protests seeking justice for the Ogoni over the severe environmental degradation in their homeland caused by oil extraction. The government responded with a brutal crackdown and in 1994 executed Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight others. Little has changed since. Ogoniland, like the broader Niger Delta, has become more polluted and development has stalled, with little to show for the billions of dollars in crude that has been extracted. read more

18 December 2019, 15:02 UTC

With inequality, injustice and hate speech seemingly ever more prevalent across the globe, you’d be forgiven for thinking 2019 has been a bad year for human rights. Yet, we have also seen some significant wins. Activists the world over have been galvanised to stand up and fight for our human rights – and thanks to their relentless campaigning we achieved some striking leaps forward.

The District Court of The Hague issued an interim ruling in favour of Esther Kiobel and three other women who took on one of the world’s biggest oil companies, Shell, in a fight for justice. Esther has pursued the company for more than 20 years over the role she says it played in the arbitrary execution of her husband in Nigeria. Amnesty has shared over 30,000 solidarity messages with Esther Kiobel, and is supporting her Kiobel vs Shell case in The Hague. As a result of this hearing, the court in October 2019 heard for the first time the accounts of individuals who accuse Shell of offering them bribes to give fake testimonies that led to the ‘Ogoni Nine’ – who included Esther Kiobel’s husband – being sentenced to death and executed. read more

The above extracts are from Trustpilot, Facebook Group: Shell Energy (formerly First Utility) – the worst customer service ever?? and First Utility Reviews

The Shell Energy gripe website is being launched in response to consumer horror stories involving debt collectors and bailiffs, with complaints posted online by outraged Shell Energy customers like the damning examples quoted in the above header.

By John Donovan

Shell and its shareholders will not welcome the news that I am launching another website later this month focussed on Shell. This time the target is Shell Energy, a global brand of rapidly growing importance and value to the parent company – Royal Dutch Shell Plc – in its quest to move away from an increasingly toxic fossil fuel-based business. Part of the gathering flight of ethical investors deserting Big Oil, in Shell’s case a transition into becoming a global energy and broadband company, instead of a dying oil giant. read more