Climate groups lashed out at Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) after chief executive Wael Sawan revealed the oil giant would backtrack on plans to cut annual oil production by up to 2% until 2030.
According to Global Witness, the U-turn could see Shell produce an average of 29mln tonnes of extra carbon dioxide each year.
That’s almost as much as the output of Denmark, the environmental group continued, adding “it will always be profit over people and planet for polluters”.
“Record profits, off the back of the energy crisis, should be boosting up green investment,” one of the group’s campaigners, Jonathan Noronha-Gant, said.
“Instead it’s shareholder pay-outs and a doubling down on climate-wrecking fossil fuels,” he commented, following Sawan’s move to boost stakeholder distributions on Wednesday’s capital markets day.
At a capital markets day, Shell also revealed plans to cut underlying operating costs by up to US$3bn come 2025, complementing a bump up of shareholder distributions from 20% to 30%, to between 30% and 40% of its cash flow.
Greenpeace campaigners suggested the move showed Shell’s “true colours,” arguing oil companies “remain determined to squeeze every last drop of profit” from fossil fuels, regardless of the environmental costs.
“The writing is on the wall for oil and gas but Wael Sawan is refusing to read it,” Greenpeace added. “Fossil fuel greed is putting all of us at risk.”