Shell AGM statement: We demand climate reparations and an end to fossil fuels
A coalition of Climate Justice groups are gathering in London today to take action against the Shell Annual General Meeting in solidarity with communities worldwide who are resisting the oppressive violence of their fossil fuel extraction. Inside, the AGM has been disrupted by protestors highlighting Shell’s human rights abuses and contributions to the climate crisis. Outside of the AGM, testimonies against Shell from people affected by their projects are being played, and protestors are gathering.
The protest follows the People’s Health Tribunal held on Saturday, 13th May, where affected communities voiced how Shell’s oil extraction has destroyed the health of people and ecosystems in Nigeria and South Africa. These very same communities face the most severe consequences of climate change, such as flooding and crop failure, whilst Shell continues to make enormous profits and worsen the climate crisis by expanding fossil fuel extraction.
On Saturday 20th of May, an international judging panel of global environmental justice leaders found Shell’s operations in Africa guilty of activities “extremely harmful to the livelihoods, health, right to shelter, quality of life, right to live in dignity, quality of environment, right to live free of discrimination and oppression, right to clean water, and right to self-determination of the impacted communities”.
We are demanding the recommendations of the tribunal be implemented, including reparations for communities impacted by extraction, reparations for the climate crisis, an end to oil and gas exploration, and a safe-phase out of existing fossil fuel infrastructure.
Ken Henshaw, Executive Director of the Niger Delta based organisation We The People said “Today, the Niger Delta is one vast oil field with over 1,481 wells, 275 flow stations, over 7,000 kilometres of oil/gas pipelines and over 120 gas flare furnaces. Our home is an ecological bomb and one of the most polluted places in the world. Remember that the company most complicit in these atrocities, Shell made $40billion in 2022. In the first quarter of this year Shell has already made nearly $10 billion. As we drown in floods, get sick and die, they make more profits.”
Nonhle Mbuthuma, a land and human rights defender from South Africa who is trying to prevent Shell’s offshore drilling plans, said: “As Indigenous communities, we always respect nature. Communities have a right to decide what is good for them, they have a right to say no, they have a right to choose.”
Lazarus Tamana, from Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people, said “Shell must concentrate on addressing the genocide and ecocide of the Ogoni people and the people of the Niger Delta, through ecological repairs and reparations. Shareholders at this meeting today should review the destructive environmental policies of Shell globally, for the sake of our planet”
Dorothy Guerrero, head of policy at Global Justice Now, said: “Today Shell’s investors are gathering to count their winnings from a profit windfall that defies belief. As the world approaches 1.5C of heating for the first time, and people even in the richest countries can’t afford to live due to spiralling energy bills, a company which bears massive responsibility for these two crises is making monstrous amounts of money. Something has gone seriously wrong in our world for Shell to be able to continue profiteering from such destruction. We have joined today’s protests to help send a message that the climate justice movement will fight this company every step of the way.”
Signed, the organisers of the People’s Health Tribunal and allies:
- Medact
- Race and Health
- Tipping Point
- People’s Health Movement
- Fossil Free London
- Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people
- We The People Nigeria
- Global Justice Now