Green group plans protest at oil firm’s AGM
Oil giant Shell was today expected to become the latest energy group to come under pressure from environmentalists over its exploration policies.
Pressure group Friends of the Earth was organising a demonstration today at Shell’s AGM in London, led by three ‘‘tigers’’ who will canvass shareholders.
The primary aim is to persuade Shell to abandon oil exploration plans near the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh, home to a large population of tigers.
The Sundarbans is one of the world’s largest remaining areas of mangrove forest and FoE is concerned exploration could cause significant damage.
But a Shell spokesman called the FoE protest ‘‘misplaced’’, claiming the group would actually be exploring just outside of the Sundarbans.
Fellow oil giant BP was hit by a similar demonstration last month.
Greenpeace and the Free Tibet Campaign used BP’s AGM to demonstrate against its controversial stake in Chinese firm PetroChina and to bring attention to renewable energy sources.
FoE will also be pressurising Shell to outline its policies for renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and tidal, at the demonstration.
FoE campaigner Craig Bennett said: ‘‘I would question the business sense of Shell going round the world looking for more fossil fuel sources. Are we really going to want fossil fuels in 10 to 20 years time?’’
But the Shell spokesman countered that there is still a need for fossil fuels and will be for some time, adding that renewable sources could not produce enough energy and that was likely to be the case for decades.
FoE claims Shell currently invests less than 1% of turnover in renewable energy.
Earlier this month, Shell reported first quarter profits of £2.7 bn, a 23% increase on the same period last year, prompted in the main by high gas and oil prices.
