Advertisement

Shell pauses London AGM as protesters chant ‘We will stop you’

Three people have been arrested after Shell was forced to pause its annual general meeting in London after it was interrupted by environmental protesters chanting: “We will stop you.”

About 40 climate protesters attending the event as shareholders told the oil and gas company’s board: “We will expose you. We know who you are. We know what you have done. We will remember.”

They repeatedly chanted “Shell must fall” and “shame on you” at the assembled executives at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, accusing the board of spending “more money on green advertising than green technology”.

Related: Rishi Sunak reportedly considering windfall tax on electricity generators

The Shell chairman, Sir Andrew Mackenzie, became increasingly exasperated as he asked for quiet and was forced to formally pause the meeting after 40 minutes as it was continuously interrupted.

One shareholder shouted at the protesters: “Out! out! out!” and another made rude gestures towards them.

Police arrived at the meeting and watched as the protest, which lasted more than an hour, continued.

One protester said: “Where is your decency? Why are you sitting there smirking? You cannot dismiss us.” An attender responded angrily: “You have infiltrated this meeting. Let the chairman answer.” The protester replied: “They give us answers and it’s always greenwash.”

Mackenzie asked shareholders who were not protesting to leave the main auditorium to another room for lunch while the room was cleared of activists who had glued themselves to their seats. One shareholder shouted “fuck off” at them as he left the room.

Another group of protesters unveiled a banner saying “Shell profits from hell on Earth”. Police then asked Shell staff and the board to leave, and after 90 minutes had successfully cleared the room.

One woman who was led out of the building by police was later seen handcuffed on the ground and crying. The Metropolitan police said she had sustained a slight knee injury in a fall and was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Three people were arrested outside the hall – two for attempted criminal damage and one for criminal damage – the force said.

Demonstrators protest outside the Shell AGM at Central Hall in Westminster
Demonstrators protest outside the Shell AGM in Westminster on Tuesday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Investors are due to vote at the event on Shell’s climate proposals. The investor Royal London has said it intends to abstain on a vote on the firm’s climate transition proposals.

The Dutch activist group Follow This wants the company’s policies to be more consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate goals.

Protests were held outside Central Hall throughout the morning, with climate activists chanting slogans, making speeches and berating Shell shareholders who were arriving for the AGM.

Demonstrators protest near the Shell AGM at Central Hall in Westminster.
Demonstrators protest near the Shell AGM at Central Hall in Westminster. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Protesters lined the route shareholders took to the front door. “Vote for life today,” one shouted.

Addressing the crowd, Lauren MacDonald, an activist with Stop Cambo, which last year campaigned successfully for Shell to pull out of a new oilfield development in the North Sea, challenged investors walking past, prompting shouts of “shame on you” from the crowd. Some investors tried shouting back, but were drowned out.

Protesters also heard from Caroline Lucas, the UK parliament’s only Green MP, who said she had called on the government in the Commons to prevent companies like Shell setting up in the UK.

She told the Guardian: “For me, being here as a politician, I try using every tool I have access to in parliament in order to get our government to listen to the science. But they are not listening, they are planning more oil and gas licences – even more extraordinarily, they are planning more coal too – and that’s why this action outside the AGM is so critical. We have to use every mechanism that we have available to us.”

Mark Pengelly, the superintendent minister of the Chelmsford Methodist circuit, criticised the church, which he said had last year voted to divest from oil and gas, for allowing Shell’s AGM to go ahead in its headquarters.

“I feel embarrassed and I feel sad, really, that my church is here as the backdrop to this AGM today, and it seems to totally contradict what the Methodist church is trying to say about the climate emergency,” he said.

A Shell spokesperson said: “We respect the right of everyone to express their point of view and welcome any engagement on our strategy and the energy transition which is constructive. However, this kind of disruption at our AGM is the opposite of constructive engagement.

“We agree that society needs to take urgent action on climate change. Shell has a clear target to become a net zero emissions business by 2050.”