IT WAS inevitably dubbed 鈥淏lack Wednesday鈥�. But for anyone with an interest in a sustainable future for humanity on the planet 鈥� that is, all of us 鈥� 26 May was a red-letter day.
Strike one was a Dutch court ordering Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell to align itself with the Paris Agreement on climate change and cut its carbon emissions, including from the products it sells, by 45 per cent by 2030. Activist investors then voted to make US oil firm Chevron responsible for reducing the emissions from customers burning its products. And, in strike three, a small hedge fund forced ExxonMobil to accept two pro-environment members on its board. It was a 鈥渃rushing day for Big Oil鈥�, campaigner Bill McKibben of 350.org tweeted.
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Shell announced its intention to appeal the court decision. It must ask itself on what basis, and what further legal, financial and reputational risk it will bring on itself by doing so.
The Paris accord represents the settled, negotiated will of humanity to limit global temperature rise to 2掳C above pre-industrial levels, and ideally 1.5掳C. Fossil fuel companies can enjoy no exemption if it is to be implemented in full. No less a body than the International Energy Agency, often seen as a fossil fuel apologist, said in a that investment in new fossil fuel projects must stop now if we are to hit 鈥渘et zero鈥� carbon emissions by 2050.
Time is running out for big oil to secure its own future by pivoting unequivocally towards green fuels. If firms won鈥檛 do that themselves, the Chevron and ExxonMobil cases show that investors are increasingly willing to force change from the inside.
That is a process we can all assist. As our report shows, much of the money used to capitalise big oil and other unsustainable industries is controlled by investment funds, including pensions, on our behalf. It is time for all individuals with such investments to start making noise, demanding transparency on where our money is going, and forcing change if we don鈥檛 like it. Capitalism created climate change. With increasingly robust legal and financial backing, it can fix it.
