Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in London descended into chaos with more than an hour of climate protests delaying the start of a meeting in which investors in the oil company rejected new targets for carbon emissions cuts.
The FTSE 100 oil company faced a shareholder vote backed by big pension funds and investors to set carbon emission reduction targets for 2030, while dozens of protesters called for an immediate end to fossil fuel production.
Climate protests have become a regular feature of annual meetings in recent years, with campaigns focused particularly on banks such as HSBC and Barclays that lend to fossil fuel projects as well as oil companies including Shell’s rival BP.
Wael Sawan, in his first annual meeting as Shell’s chief executive, and Andrew Mackenzie, Shell’s chair and the former chief executive of the mining company BHP, defended the company repeatedly against accusations that it was not switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy quickly enough.
Sawan said the company had invested $4.3bn (£3.5bn) in 2022 in low-carbon energy, including biofuels, hydrogen, electric car charging and renewable power. However, he acknowledged that was only part of its total capital spending of $25bn – most of which was on oil and gas.
The company asked shareholders to vote against the climate resolution, which was organised by the campaign group Follow This. The group has gradually won increased support from large investors in recent years, although it has not yet managed a majority.
Shell’s shareholders rejected the resolution by 79.8% to 20.2%, according to a preliminary count from the company. A similar Follow This resolution in 2022 also secured 20% support.
Mark van Baal, the founder of Follow This, told the meeting that shareholders voting in line with company management “enable Shell to continue to cause climate breakdown and jeopardise the long-term future of the company”.
In response to the Follow This resolution, Sawan, a Lebanese-Canadian, cited a proverb to argue that pushing Shell to cut its production of oil and gas would be premature and would result in other fossil fuel producers filling the gap.
Sawan said: “In Lebanon there is a proverb that says: ‘Some men will build a wine cellar when they have found just one grape.’ It seems to me this is what Follow This is doing. They have one idea. And that idea is that the world can quickly and easily replace all oil and gas by targeting companies like Shell.”
The official results of the vote were due to be published on Tuesday afternoon.
Shell’s board, sitting at London’s ExCeL conference centre, had been braced for disruption at the meeting, saying it had received “intelligence” about possible “threats” to the meeting beforehand.
The chaos started in the first minute. As soon as the meeting opened one protester stood up and began shouting. He said: “Do you like David Attenborough, the most popular man in this country? He said it is crazy that banks and pension funds are investing in fossil fuels.”
Mackenzie repeatedly asked him to sit down, saying the company wanted to hear from others. In answer, a crowd started singing: “Go to hell, Shell” to the tune of Hit the Road Jack by Percy Mayfield. That was followed by chants of “shut down Shell” and “we hate Jackdaw” – a reference to its North Sea oilfield. “We have heard you loud and clear,” Mackenzie said.
It was the 45-minute mark before Mackenzie formally opened the meeting, but protests continued for more than an hour. At one point, security staff rushed to the front of the meeting to shield the board as protesters tried to approach the stage. Scuffles broke out as security removed the protesters.
“We want the debate,” said Mackenzie, as security removed dozens of people.
A Shell spokesperson said: “We respect people’s right to express their point of view and welcome any constructive engagement on our strategy and the energy transition. However, yet again protesters have shown that they are not interested in constructive engagement.
“We agree that society needs to take action on climate change.”
Last year, three people were arrested after Shell was forced to pause its AGM and environmental protesters chanted: “We will stop you.”
