Security after protesters tried to storm the stage at the Excel centre in east London during oil giant Shell's annual general meeting in London, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Climate change protesters disrupted Shell鈥檚 shareholder Tuesday while activist investors sought to pressure executives with a resolution demanding the energy giant beef up its climate change strategy. (Rebecca Speare-Cole/PA via AP)
Security after protesters tried to storm the stage at the Excel centre in east London during oil giant Shell's annual general meeting in London, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Climate change protesters disrupted Shell鈥檚 shareholder Tuesday while activist investors sought to pressure executives with a resolution demanding the energy giant beef up its climate change strategy. (Rebecca Speare-Cole/PA via AP)
LONDON (AP) 鈥 Climate change protesters were dragged away as they tried to storm the stage at Shell鈥檚 shareholder meeting Tuesday, while activist investors added pressure with a resolution demanding the global oil and gas giant beef up its emissions strategy.
Shell Chairman Andrew Mackenzie could not start the meeting for more than an hour as dozens of protesters stood up, chanting and singing 鈥淪hut down Shell" and 鈥淕o to hell, Shell.鈥 Several who tried to run onto the stage were stopped and carried out of the room by security guards at a London's ExCel conference center.
The activists, including members of Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion, say Shell and other at the cost of the environment.
for 2022. Fossil fuel companies have posted bumper earnings as global after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, driving up inflation and helping create a cost-of-living crisis.
That sparked public anger in the U.K., where millions of households and businesses have .
鈥淪hell is continuing to drill new oil and gas fields here in the U.K. and around the world in some of the most biodiverse regions in the Philippines and in the Niger Delta," said Carina Manitius, 27, a protester from the group Fossil Free London.
"So we鈥檙e here to say, 鈥楤usiness as usual cannot continue and we鈥檙e going to shut you down,鈥欌 Manitius said.
Shell said it respected people's right to express their opinions but that 鈥減rotesters have shown that they are not interested in constructive engagement.鈥
Activist investors brought forward a shareholder resolution calling for Shell to strengthen its goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saying its current target doesn鈥檛 align with the aimed at limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2030.
Shareholders rejected the proposal. Shell executives said its climate targets are aligned with the Paris agreement's more ambitious goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5 C.
Mark van Baal, founder of the Dutch activist investor group Follow This that proposed the resolution, said Shell was misleading investors by saying it doesn't have to to meet the goals.
鈥淔ellow shareholders, your company will only change if you vote for change,鈥 he said.
A statement supporting the shareholder resolution says the energy and climate crises can be addressed simultaneously by investing windfall profits from high oil and gas prices in .
