Stopping Shell and catching climate criminals

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Dear Shell-stoppers,

It’s been a busy start to the summer for the UKTSN crew. We have been giving Shell Hell at their Annual General Meetings in London and Amsterdam and made sure that RBS shareholders heard from us too.  There has been some great support for the Fuel Quality Directive in Europe, which means we are gearing up to make sure that Canada’s lobbying doesn’t undo these positive developments in European climate law.

1. Giving Shell Hell
2. RBS – Climate Criminals
3. Fuel Quality Directive Gathering EU support!
4. Upcoming Events

We’re always excited to hear from you, drop us a line if you want to get involved, or just give us some words of encouragement!

Love,

Sue, Emily, Ruthi and Jess

1. Giving Shell Hell

We were really honoured to host our “Get the Shell Out” with friends from Indigenous Environmental Network, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), Women of Africa, Platform, Rising Tide UK, FairPensions, Greenpeace, Shell to Sea, Climate Rush, Art Not Oil, Rossport Solidarity Camp and Occupy. It was a night of amazing testimonies from people from the Canadian tar sands, the Arctic, Nigeria and Ireland, who are all resisting Shell developments as highlighted in our new report ‘Risking Ruin’. We then hopped over to the Hague and supported the delegation to question Shell on their developments.

The Shell Annual General Meeting was completely dominated by concerns about the company’s environmental and human rights impacts globally. We were glad that all of our delegates got to put Shell in the hot seat about their plans to double expansion on the tar sands and begin drilling in the Arctic this summer. There were some great ‘Grim Reaper’ interventions in London both outside the AGM and on the live webcast that streamed all the way to the Hague.

There is a great blog post about the Shell AGM from our friend James at Platform. A selection of other coverage is available here.

2. RBS – Climate Criminals

Meanwhile, up in Edinburgh our friends have been giving RBS a grilling over its controversial investments in tar sands projects. People and Planet protesters, dressed as ‘climate criminals’, dropped a banner of RBS’s bridge outside their Gogarburn HQ and greeted shareholders on their way in to the meeting. Photos are up on our website.

RBS told UK Tar Sands Network and Platform last year at its AGM that it would develop a ‘policy’ on fossil fuels that might have restricted funds for harmful projects such as the Enbridge Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline. But this policy seems to have disappeared off the agenda, and research shows that RBS has continued funding Enbridge, to the tune of $131.25 million in the past year. The proposed Enbridge pipeline would take tar sands oil across British Columbia to the west coast, cutting through First Nations’ traditional territories and opening up new markets for tar sands oil. Read more about the growing movement against the pipeline.

3. Fuel Quality Directive Gathering EU support!

The past few weeks have seen some robust support for the Fuel Quality Directive from the European Parliament.  This is a great sign that the aggressive lobbying from the Canadian government is not totally trashing our hope for European climate legislation.  However, the vote on the directive has been pushed back to 2013 and we expect to see more aggressive lobbying from the Canadian government in the next few weeks. We want to make sure that we continue to spotlight the extent to which the Canadian government is working to undermine climate legislation.  We will keep you up to date with plans as they unfold at the end of summer.

4. Upcoming Events

Carnival of Dirt
TODAY, 11am, the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, London
A carnival like no other, the Carnival of Dirt highlights the ills of mining and extraction corporations that evade millions in taxation, are supported by the British government and are propped up by UK pension funds, despite their obscene human rights, financial and environmental abuses. The day will start with a ceremony to celebrate those who stand up against the mining and extraction corporations and to remember those who have died for doing so, and end with a Reclaim the Streets party.

Alternative Rio Conference
Saturday, June 16, 10am to Sunday, June 17, 6pm, in atcentral London Universities – SOAS, the Institute of Education (IOE) and University College London (UCL). Opening plenary in IOE, Thornhaugh Street off Russell Square.
Under the heading of  “Rio to Rio: 20 wasted years?”  the conference will include a wide range of workshops and seminars. Titles include: Food Security – how can we stop a tragedy unfolding ?; Green Energy versus ‘Extreme’ Energy; and One Million Climate Jobs. And our very own Emily will also give a workshop about on “Tar sands: Can we shut down the world’s most destructive industry and avoid climate chaos?” Register here.