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Greenpeace in ‘peaceful protest’ on Shell’s Brent platforms

Greenpeace has announced it is carrying out “peaceful protests” at Shell’s Brent field in the UK North Sea.

by Allister Thomas: 14/10/2019

Activists from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are protesting on two platforms in the field, around 115 miles north-east of Shetland – brandishing signs of “Shell, clean up your mess”.

It comes as a special meeting of Ospar, an agreement between 15 governments to protect Europe’s marine environment, takes place in London on Friday.

Some countries have lodged objections to Shell’s plans to leave the legs of three of the platforms – Bravo, Charlie and Delta – in the sea, with concerns around the contents of oil storage cells within them deteriorating. read more

By HENRY MARTIN and PHOEBE ECKERSLEY FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:47, 12 October 2019 | UPDATED: 22:15, 12 October 2019

• Extinction Rebellion activists entered the sixth day of their ongoing demonstration in London today   
• More than 100 healthcare professionals gathered outside Shell HQ to highlight deaths caused by air pollution
• Climate change activists are also marching in a funeral procession down Oxford Street in a ‘grief march’ 
• Police announced there have been 1,290 arrests in connection with the ongoing protests across London

Doctors and nurses joined Extinction Rebellion protesters today as ‘stretched’ police call in backup from Scotland – and warn that protests are impeding their ability to attend to other crime.

More than 100 healthcare professionals have joined the sixth day of climate change protests in London. Doctors, nurses and medical students were among those demonstrating at Jubilee Gardens, near oil giant Shell’s London HQ, on Saturday in the ‘Health March for the Planet’. 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

The Dutch government wants Shell to clean up the foundations of three oil and gas platforms in the British part of the North Sea, infrastructure minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen has told MPs.

The minister’s comments follow the publication of a report on the decommissioning operation which recommends the clean up be carried out as agreed over 20 years ago in international treaties.

The licence request ‘does not sufficiently support’ the claim that leaving the foundations and storage units, which contain polluted material, is the best option from an environmental or safety point of view, the minister told MPs. read more

OCTOBER 10, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it would offset the carbon dioxide emissions of around 1.5 million road users in Britain starting later this month under a loyalty scheme.

Shell, like other oil companies, has come under pressure from shareholders to show how it plans to reduce its carbon footprint and help cut greenhouse gas emissions, a major cause of global warming.

Britons are increasingly concerned about their environmental impact, with thousands of students striking earlier this year and green group Extinction Rebellion carrying out civil disobedience to push for more ambition on climate change. 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

PODCAST LINK

In 1995, the Nigerian government executed the Ogoni Nine – environmental activists who were trying to fight Shell’s exploitation of their homeland. Now, four widows are taking the oil company to court. And: Dan Sabbagh on the ramifications of Trump’s shock decision to withdraw from the Turkish-Syrian border

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Presented by Rachel Humphreys with Kate Hodal, Esther Kiobel, Channa Samkalden and Dan Sabbagh, produced by Gary Marshall; executive producers Nicole Jackson and Phil Maynard read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Ben van Beurden Reuters: Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla: October 9, 2019

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive took aim beyond the energy sector to call on leaders of other industries including aviation, shipping and steel to jointly draw up plans to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

Ben van Beurden also warned on Wednesday that energy companies that do not collaborate in the fight against climate under the 2015 Paris agreement risk going out of business.

“Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the energy industry, but the energy industry isn’t the biggest challenge for the world trying to tackle climate change,” van Beurden told the Oil & Money conference. read more

A witness hearing examining Shell’s role in the execution of nine men in Nigeria in the 1990s is a key opportunity to hold the oil giant to account over its alleged complicity in human rights abuses, Amnesty International said.

The Kiobel v Shell case resumes at The Hague on 8 October and will for the first time hear accounts from 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

Nigeria/Netherlands: witnesses heard in landmark case scutinising Shell’s role in execution of Ogoni Nine

Shell accused of complicity in execution of nine men in Nigeria in the 1990s

Witness hearing a key chance to hold Shell to account

A witness hearing examining Shell’s role in the execution of nine men in Nigeria in the 1990s is a key opportunity to hold the oil giant to account over its alleged complicity in human rights abuses, Amnesty International said.

The Kiobel v Shell case resumes at The Hague today (8 October) and will for the first time hear accounts from 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.

Esther Kiobel and three other women – Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula – accuse Shell of being complicit in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands. The men were hanged in 1995 along with renowned activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and four other men after they were convicted in a blatantly unfair trial. read more

Extracts from an article published by BEYOND PESTICIDES: 7 Oct 2019

Banana Workers Made Sterile from Pesticide Sue Dow in France

In a pattern of corporate irresponsibility, if not actual malfeasance, now commonly recognized — think Big Tobacco, Big Fossil Fuels, Big Pharma, Big Chem — Shell (Royal Dutch Shell) and Dow Chemical were aware as early as 1958 of toxicological data from experiments on male rats demonstrating that exposure to DBCP caused reproductive anomalies, including reduced testes size at airborne exposures of 5ppm (parts per million), and at 20ppm, sterility in all subjects. (Dow Chemical merged for a time with DuPont to become DowDuPont; in spring of 2019, that company disaggregated into Dow, DuPont, and Corteva, the last of which handles the agricultural seed, trait, and chemicals strands of the business.) read more

Big investors fail to pressure companies over fossil-fuel lobbying

Little support for disclosure resolutions that call on groups to divulge payments

Siobhan Riding 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

By Angie Brown: BBC Scotland, Edinburgh and East reporter: 3 Oct 2019 Shell flaring seen from Cowdenbeath in September

Shell has been forced to burn off “significant” volumes of ethane it cannot sell to a firm temporarily shut down over flaring issues in Fife.

Residents living near the Mossmorran site thought flaring would be reduced after Exxonmobil was closed in August.

However, ground flares have continued to burn because Shell’s only ethane customer is Exxonmobil, which shares the site.

Shell said it was “actively exploring alternative ethane outlets”.

Shell’s Fife Natural Gas Liquids plant separates natural gas liquids into ethane, propane, butane and natural gasoline for storage and onward distribution. read more

Brad Thompson Reporter: Oct 2, 2019

Shell has warned Western Australia’s environmental watchdog that billions of dollars of investment are at risk if it contributes to mixed messages on tackling greenhouse gas emissions.

The oil and gas giant urged the Environmental Protection Authority to hold fire on handing down new emissions guidelines for approving large-scale projects in the resources rich state.

Shell also rejected the notion that it was possible to introduce a policy requiring net zero offsets in the oil and gas industry. read more