The Brent Spar affair was a publicity fiasco for ShellBy BBC News Online's environment correspondent Alex Kirby The man who led a bitter campaign against Shell says, environmentally, it is now the industry's leader. Chris Rose co-ordinated Greenpeace's 1995 struggle to stop the oil giant scuttling the Brent Spar oil installation at sea. Shell eventually agreed to dismantle the Spar instead and has now won praise from Mr Rose for its stand on climate change.
In a move worthy of
the prodigal son, he
says Shell deserves support because it is the
only oil company to have reaffirmed its
commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.
President George W Bush made it clear in
March that the US would not ratify the
international climate treaty.
Consumer boycott
Mr Rose now co-ordinates the Families Against
Bush (FaB) campaign.
He told BBC News Online: "Its purpose is to
give people a way of doing something practical
to save our children's climate, by putting
pressure on people in the US who can make
sure that action is taken."
FaB encourages people to buy the products of
companies whose stand on Kyoto it approves
and to boycott the rest.
Mr Rose said: "We're
not looking just at the
oil companies.
"We're getting together
a shopping basket of
brands relevant to
families, like food and
drink manufacturers,
clothing firms, and
places to eat."
Six years ago he and
Shell were locked in a
fierce dispute over the company's plan to sink
the redundant Brent Spar in the north Atlantic.
Greenpeace argued that this was
environmentally irresponsible and, after weeks
of acrimonious and widely-publicised argument
and consumer boycotts in Europe, the
company dropped its plans.
Culture change
The Spar was eventually towed to a Norwegian
fjord and later cut up.
Mr Rose told BBC News Online: "In 1995 I'd
have been surprised to find myself endorsing
Shell.
"But it's become apparent over the years that
the company has undergone a huge amount of
change, and that's partly because of the
trauma it underwent over the Brent Spar.
"It is a European
company, and on Kyoto
its position is far more
like the European
Union's than the US oil
giants' stands."
FaB bases its
endorsement of Shell's
climate policy on a
speech made on 25 April by the group
managing director of the Royal Dutch/Shell
Group, Jeroen van der Veer.
He told the second international oil summit in
Paris: "I believe that events in the US make it
even more imperative that as an industry we
remain resolute in our pledge to deliver on
actions to control greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientific evidence
"The oil and gas industry cannot ignore climate
change."
Shell's website says: "The balance of scientific
evidence suggests a link between human
activities - especially the burning of fossil fuels
- and climate change.
"At the very least, mankind is carrying out a
risky experiment with the planet by raising the
levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
to levels far above any seen in the last
150,000 years or more.
"We do not know whether this will be
catastrophic, or whether it might on balance
be slightly beneficial. But we do know that it
is, in effect, irreversible."
-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001