Tuesday, October 15, 2019
With "overwhelming evidence that we are on the brink
of climate and ecological collapse," executive's comment elicits intense
rebuke
Climate activists and experts underscored the necessity of
fighting to urgently end the use of fossil fuels worldwide after Royal Dutch
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden claimed Monday that "we have no choice" but
to invest in long-term oil and gas projects.
On Tuesday, Bill McKibben, co-founder of the global
environmental advocacy group 350.org, declared that "we have no choice but
to try and stop them."
The 61-year-old fossil fuel executive's comment was part of
an exclusive interview published Monday by Reuters. According to the news
agency:
A defiant van Beurden rejected a rising chorus from climate
activists and parts of the investor community to transform radically the
112-year-old Anglo-Dutch company's traditional business model.
"Despite what a lot of activists say, it is entirely
legitimate to invest in oil and gas because the world demands it," van
Beurden said.
"We have no choice" but to invest in long-life
projects, he added.
Shell, which is headquartered in the Netherlands and
incorporated in the United Kingdom, is among the
world's largest energy companies. Last year, the publicly traded
company's revenue was $388.4
billion.
Based on an investor presentation from June, Reuters reported
that "Shell plans to greenlight more than 35 new oil and gas projects by
2025."
On Twitter, biologist and activist Sandra Steingraber
highlighted Shell's plans for the future—plans which directly conflict with
global scientists' warnings that
the world needs to rapidly transform energy systems, replacing fossil fuels with
renewable sources, to prevent climate catastrophe.
Dharini Parthasarathy of Climate Action Network
International (CAN) called out van Beurden as a "climate criminal"
who refuses to abandon oil "despite the overwhelming evidence that we are
on the brink of climate and ecological collapse."
Patrick Galey, a global science and environment
correspondent for Agence France-Presse, posited that "when the trials
of oil and gas executives come, this interview will be Exhibit A."
As Common Dreams reported in
July, "lawsuits that aim to push governments to more ambitiously the
address climate emergency and make polluting corporations pay for the damage
caused by their sizable contributions to the global warming are growing in
popularity around the world."
Examples include the state of Rhode Island's ongoing
lawsuit that aims to make 21 fossil fuel giants—including BP, Chevron,
ExxonMobil, and Shell—pay for knowingly "causing catastrophic consequences
to Rhode Island, our economy, our communities, our residents, our
ecosystems."
Another legal strategy that climate advocates are pursuing
is using courts to force major energy companies to reform their business
practices. In April, a coalition of environmental groups who argue that Shell
has an obligation under Dutch law to act on the Paris climate goals delivered a
court summons to the company in a bid to legally compel Shell to "cease
its destruction of the climate, on behalf of more than 30,000 people from 70
countries."
Earlier this month, in response to Shell's latest quarterly
outlook for investors, Andy Rowell of the group Oil Change International wrote that
"while it may have dipped a toe into the renewable pool, Shell
belligerently refuses to dive in to help achieve a livable future, despite
decades of science imploring Big Oil to act."
"We do not trust Shell. We now know #ShellKnew, but
carried on drilling," he added, referencing evidence that
Shell scientists secretly warned company leaders decades ago about the threat
that fossil fuel emissions pose to the planet.
"It could act, but it cares not to. At the end of the
day, Shell still cares more about its shareholders than it does about
society," Rowell concluded. "It cares more about profit than it does
people. It cares more about cash than a safe climate. And that has to change,
fast, because the hour glass is nearly empty."
The criticism of Shell and its chief executive over the
company's continuing contributions to heating the planet come in the middle of
a two-week series of protests
and civil disobedience, organized by the global movement Extinction
Rebellion, to pressure governments to pursue bold, science-based solutions to
the climate crisis.
"The past week has been a moment in history: to simply
list the thousands of arrests, the many tens of thousands undertaking civil
disobedience, would not do it justice," Extinction Rebellion said Tuesday.
"We have proven to the world that this rebellion is a truly global
movement, growing rapidly within and between nations, and comprised of people
with the selflessness, the creativity, and the courage to resist the madness of
this ecocidal system."
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