You probably won’t be too shocked to hear that BP and Shell are developing even dirtier ways to profit from oil extraction.
What you might not know is that our superannuation money is being invested in the companies that are developing ‘tar sands’ – the dirtiest oil available. That’s the news from top ethical investment campaigners, FairPensions.
Getting oil from tar sands is staggeringly stupid for many reasons. Extracting oil results in massive environmental disruption: forests are clear-cut, the landscape is strip-mined, watercourses and wildlife are poisoned and indigenous peoples displaced.
On top of that, producing tar sands oil creates up to three times the carbon emissions of normal oil extraction. BP and Shell’s tar sands investments will accelerate and intensify changes in the climate that threaten all of us.
Because of lax ethical investment criteria, many superannuation funds are investing our money into BP and Shell. So while you may not have shares in Shell and BP personally, your superfund may.
On Tuesday 18 May, Shell will have its annual general meetings. We think it’s time to kick up a fuss.
Working with Fairpensions, we want superannuation funds to vote for a shareholders’ resolution that calls on Shell to answer questions about its involvement in tar sands. You can tell your super fund to support the resolution.
Go to the Fairpensions website and enter the name of your super fund to have an email automatically generated to them. (Note that superannuation funds are called ‘pension funds’ on this website.)
If you don’t have a super fund, you can email one of Shell’s largest shareholders from here.
Don’t let BP and Shell act with impunity. It’s bad for the planet and bad for those of us who want our money to be invested ethically.
