Greenpeace protesters board a Shell platform bound for Shetland | Green peace

Greenpeace protesters have boarded a floating Shell oil rig being transported 12,000 nautical miles to the Shetland Islands with indicators demanding the fossil gas large “Cease Drilling – Begin Paying”.

4 activists from the UK, Turkey, the US and Argentina climbed aboard a 52,000-tonne high-lift vessel north of the Canary Islands on Tuesday morning and unfurled a banner from the platform saying it was a peaceable protest in opposition to local weather devastation world wide “brought on by Shell and the broader fossil gas business with out paying a penny for losses and damages”.

Protesters arrived on the heavy vessel in three boats launched from Greenpeace’s Arctic Dawn and climbed aboard utilizing ropes. They then occupied the platform which is carried on the again of the vessel.

Yeb Saño, govt director of Greenpeace and former chief local weather negotiator for the Philippines, didn’t make it to the platform. He stated: “We’re taking motion in the present day as a result of when Shell extracts fossil fuels, it causes a wave of dying, destruction and displacement world wide, which has the worst affect on the people who find themselves least in charge for the local weather disaster.”

The platform will allow Shell, which is expected to disclose adjusted annual earnings of round $83bn (£67bn) later this week, to use the Penguins oil and fuel discipline, which lies 150 miles (240 km) from the Shetland Islands. Greenpeace says it will likely be used to unlock eight new wells within the discipline.

The platform may be plugged in within the manufacturing of recent oil and fuel from a close-by untapped reservoir exploited by Shell. The corporate, which is predicated in London, has described redeveloping the Penguins discipline as an “engaging alternative” that it estimates will produce 45,000 barrels of oil or fuel equal every day at its peak.

Shell stated the protest was a security concern. “These actions trigger actual security considerations as a variety of individuals board a shifting vessel in tough situations. We respect everybody’s proper to precise their opinion. It’s crucial that they accomplish that with their very own security and the security of others in thoughts,” the spokesman stated.

The corporate added that oil and fuel manufacturing within the North Sea was falling too quick. “You will need to cease too steep a decline whereas the transition to low-carbon vitality gathers tempo. The brand new float will allow manufacturing from the Penguins discipline to proceed to offer the important vitality the UK wants,” the spokesperson stated.

Shell stated the mission is in keeping with web zero pathways and can assist scale back the UK’s reliance on expensive and better carbon imports. He stated it was an outdated discipline – not a brand new one, including that 75% of the £25 billion he deliberate to spend money on the UK’s vitality system over the following decade was for low-carbon and net-zero applied sciences, together with offshore wind, hydrogen and electrical mobility.

Greenpeace has calculated that burning all of the fuel and oil from the Penguins discipline might produce 45 million tonnes of CO2 – greater than all the annual emissions of Norway.

The Worldwide Power Company has she called for no additional funding in fossil gas tasks, with the company’s analysis displaying there isn’t a room for brand new oil and fuel if the world’s vitality programs attain web zero by 2050. found that present international fossil gas manufacturing plans would lead to 57% extra oil and 71% extra fuel than is secure to maintain warming to 1.5°C.

However the UK authorities says additional exploration is important because the nation stays closely depending on fossil fuels and manufacturing within the North Sea is declining. Ministers additionally stated that new provides are important for vitality safety. Newest authorities authorized license bike for offshore oil and fuel attracted greater than 100 bids from 76 firms in January. There are already 27 licensed oil and fuel tasks awaiting remaining approval, together with the Cambo oil discipline. An extra eight tasks, together with Shell’s Jackdaw mission, are set to begin producing fuel and oil.