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<a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/29/shell-raises-dividend-soaring-oil-prices">theguardian.com</a>
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<h1 class="reader-title">Shell boss: we have no plans to change
strategy despite emissions ruling</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Jillian Ambrose</div>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">4-5 minutes</div>
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<p>Royal Dutch Shell has no plans to change its strategy
despite a landmark Netherlands court ruling calling for
the company to make a 45% cut to its carbon emissions by
the end of the decade, according to the oil giant’s chief
executive.</p>
<p>Ben van Beurden denied the company would need to change
its plans to meet the tougher court-ordered climate
targets on Thursday, as he revealed a multibillion-dollar
shareholder windfall for investors and
better-than-expected quarterly profits.</p>
<p>Shell plans to appeal against the court’s ruling, which
was handed down shortly after 30% of its shareholders,
including some of its biggest investors, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/18/shell-faces-shareholder-rebellion-over-fossil-fuel-production"
data-link-name="in body link">rebelled against the
board’s strategy</a>. They voted in favour of activist
investors who want Shell to set firm targets to wind down
fossil fuel production.</p>
<p>“I don’t think we’ll come up with a new strategy,” Van
Beurden said. “Our strategy is very much aligned with what
the plaintiffs would want us to do, which is working on
our own emissions reduction, and also helping customers
reduce emissions.”</p>
<p>Shell plans to reduce the average carbon intensity of the
energy it produces by 20% by 2030, well short of the
court’s ruling. But Van Beurden said asking “one company”
to reduce emissions by 45% when oil industry rivals and EU
states plan to achieve only half these reductions over the
same period is “not only unreasonable but doubly
ineffective”.</p>
<p>The oil boss also dismissed concerns over Shell’s plan to
help private-equity backed Siccar Point to explore for new
UK oil reserves in the Cambo oilfield near Shetland,
despite warnings from the International Energy Agency that
the world cannot afford any <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/18/no-new-investment-in-fossil-fuels-demands-top-energy-economist"
data-link-name="in body link">new fossil fuel
developments</a> if it hopes to prevent catastrophic
global heating.</p>
<p>“For as long as the UK still needs oil and gas in its
[energy] consumption, it’s better to produce in its own
backyard,” he said. “To import oil and gas, which would be
the alternative, would obviously not serve the climate at
all. Symbolically, it’s not what people would like to
hear. But symbolism won’t help us with climate change.”</p>
<p>The Cambo oilfield expansion could ignite a legal
challenge by Greenpeace against the government on the
grounds that the new exploration would undermine the UK’s
climate targets, and the government’s recent pledge to
allow new oil exploration only if it <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/24/uk-government-to-allow-new-north-sea-oil-and-gas-exploration"
data-link-name="in body link">aligns with climate
targets</a>.</p>
<p>Van Beurden mounted his defence of Shell’s ongoing fossil
fuel production as the company raised its dividend by
almost 40% and kickstarted share buybacks worth $2bn
(£1.4bn) and soaring global oil prices helped to fuel a
sharp rise in quarterly profits. </p>
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<p>It reported its highest profits in two years for the
three months to the end of June after a steady rise in
global energy prices. Its second-quarter profits climbed
to $5.5bn from $3.2bn in the same period last year, about
9% higher than forecast by City analysts.</p>
<p>Van Beurden said the company was “stepping up”
shareholder distributions by increasing dividends and
kickstarting share buybacks “while we continue <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/16/shell-scottish-power-floating-offshore-windfarms-energy-scotland"
data-link-name="in body link">to invest for the future
of energy</a>”. “We wanted to be really clear and signal
to the market the confidence that we have in our prospects
and our cashflows,” he said.</p>
<p>Despite the shareholder sweetener, Shell’s share price
remains well below where it traded before the outbreak of
Covid-19, even as oil prices have recovered to
pre-pandemic levels. Despite rising on Thursday morning,
the shares were up to only 1,432p, compared with 2,298p in
January 2020.</p>
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