– PRESS RELEASE –
More than four years after Shell announced its intention to join the energy transition, Shell is still not reporting how much the company is investing in renewable energy, quarterly figures published today show.
90% in fossil fuels
“Apparently, Shell also does not consider its investments in the energy transition to be worthy of disclosure,” responds Mark van Baal of Follow This.” Investors are still unable to judge how seriously Shell is taking the energy transition. What is clear is that approximately 90% of the investments will continue to go to fossil fuels in 2022.”
In the accompanying slides (page 18, screenshot below), the 2021 investments in ‘renewables and energy solutions’ have been merged with ‘marketing’. ”Most likely, investments in marketing are higher than in renewables, otherwise Shell would have reported them separately.”
Planned investments in 2022 in ‘renewables and energy solutions’ are $3 billion (12% of the total of approximately $25 billion). Investments in oil and gas exploration and production (upstream) will go up from $6 in 2021 to $8 billion in 2022.
“You can’t claim to be in transition if only 12% of your investments are going to new, renewable energy businesses and investments in old, fossil businesses are increasing,” says Mark van Baal.
No Paris-consistent targets
Shell’s goals are therefore still not in line with Paris, contrary to what Shell writes on page 21 (“Strategy aligns with goal to limit the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”). The Paris Agreement calls for a global emissions reduction of about 40% by 2030; Shell only wants to reduce its average emissions by 20% while its total emissions will increase this decade (an analysis by Global Climate Insights showed).
Climate resolution
“Investors are losing patience. This was evident in May 2021 when 30% of investors voted in favor of the Follow This climate resolution.” A week later, a court ruling ordered Shell to decrease emissions by 45% by 2030. In May 2022, investors can vote again for the Follow This climate resolution
”Together with responsible investors, we continue to support Shell and other oil majors to set Paris-consistent targets and invest accordingly. Big Oil can make or break the Paris Accord”.
