Read the latest insights and analysis from the experts at Oil Change International.
The disconnect is terrifyingly stark. Last week, the Guardian newspaper reported that the “World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, with the planet heading for at least 2.5C of warming “with disastrous results for humanity."
Last month, it was widely reported that another chapter in Shell’s dirty and disastrous eighty-seven-year operations in the Niger Delta was coming to an end, with the company selling its onshore business.
The glossy website for the African Oil Summit in London last week called the event “Africa’s premier global energy conference”. Partners included some of the biggest international oil companies such as BP, Shell, Eni, E.on and Total.
A Go Fund Me page has been created to help the widows of four Ogoni whose husbands were murdered by the Nigerian military back in 1995, along with the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. The widows finally gave up their decades-long legal struggle against Shell last year and are in desperate financial straits. Please help them.
Today marks the twenty seventh anniversary of the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other members of the Ogoni 9. They were murdered in 1995 by the Nigerian junta for their peaceful campaign to highlight the ecological destruction and environmental racism of Shell’s operations in Nigeria.
On Monday, British Cycling, the UK’s national body promoting cycling, which has helped the country produce a string of elite Olympian athletes, announced that it had signed a “long-term partnership” with oil giant Shell.
The history of Shell on the African continent is wrapped in a vortex of controversy that stretches back decades. However, last week, in a significant victory, a High Court in South Africa ruled that Shell’s exploration right to conduct seismic surveys on the so-called “Wild Coast” of the country was granted unlawfully.
Two prominent African environmentalists are pushing back against those advocating for more fossil fuel drilling on the continent. They argue that “far from generating prosperity and stability in sub-Saharan Africa, investments in fossil fuels cause real harm,” noting “Decades of fossil fuel development have failed to deliver energy to much of the continent" and "have deepened inequality, caused environmental damage, stoked corruption, and encouraged political repression.”
We ask you to vote for Shell in Corporate Accountability’s Hall of Shame for denying justice in Nigeria for a generation and for delaying action on climate change.
There is a great and timely book that has been published entitled Crude Britannia, which looks at how oil has shaped society and the political landscape of the United Kingdom.
