Investors press for disclosure of tar sands’ climate risk
- The Guardian,
- Monday September 15 2008
F&C Management, the UK’s oldest investment trust, has teamed up with a group of US and Canadian fund managers to halt Wall Street financial regulators softening the rules on tar sands, arguing that new rules should take account of the carbon impact of reserves disclosed by oil and gas companies.
The move reflects changing attitudes among mainstream investors to the impact of commercial activities that could worsen global warming and is aimed at discouraging the US securities & exchange commission (SEC) from allowing energy firms to include carbon-heavy tar sands in their reserves submissions to the regulator.
Elizabeth McGeveran, senior vice-president in F&C’s governance and sustainable investment team, said it was important for investors to be able to assess accurately the risk profile of reported reserves at a time when governments around the world were taking an increasingly hard line on carbon pollution.
“The energy consumption required to extract a barrel from Canadian tar sands is very different to a barrel of crude from the Gulf of Mexico. Understanding climate risk will assist investors in understanding and evaluating reserves,” she said.
“SEC regulations already require the disclosure of known trends that companies can reasonably expect will have a material impact on net sales, revenues or income from continuing operations and we believe that the disclosure of any estimated additional risks posed by the extraction and development of additional reserves will be important,” added McGeveran.
The US regulator has been reviewing the regulations on the way reserves are calculated since 2004, when Shell fell foul of its rules and was forced to “lose” a quarter of its assets. The move led to fines, a plunging share price and the exit of its chairman, Sir Philip Watts.
In June the SEC issued new proposals that would allow previously excluded resources such as oil sands to be “classified” as oil and gas reserves. They would also allow companies to disclose their “probable” and “possible” reserves as well as “proved” reserves, as at present.
A host of other investors have signed a letter of concern about the tar sands proposals and called for carbon implications to be taken into account. These include the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Ceres Power and Parnassus Investments.
The letter says investors are increasingly concerned about global warming, which is not only recognised as an economic and industrial priority but also as an issue of national security.
It adds: “Therefore, filers [of reserves] should be required to provide investors with information about the carbon content of proven, probable and potential oil reserves in their portfolio as well as the potential liabilities posed by their continued extraction and use.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/15/fcassetmanagement.oilandgascompanies
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
