By Elizabeth Burden and Thomas Biesheuvel
15 August 2018, 08:54 BST
*Methodist fund developing system analyzing company ethics
*Top mining and oil companies will be graded by end of 2018
Divestment may be too blunt an instrument to encourage the world’s biggest oil and mining companies to behave ethically: the Methodist Church is prepared to back those committed to mending their ways.
While the precise workings of its new “traffic light system” are still being debated, the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church plans to determine by the end of the year whether BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and Equinor ASA have the ethical credentials to merit continued investor support. Those preferences will be denoted by red, amber and green categories, which will reflect a firm’s efforts and commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, its asset mix, capital expenditure, climate strategy and governance.
For the Methodists’ CFB, which manages more than 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7 billion), the direction of travel from an ethical standpoint will also be important as it also grades the largest mining companies. While the church stands by its 2015 decision to sell its holdings in Glencore Plc because of the Swiss miner’s high exposure to coal, it’s advocating a nuanced approach, said the CFB’s Chief Investment Officer Stephen Beer.
“The thing about divestment is it’s a one-shot tool,” Beer said in an interview. “You lose the ability to engage going forward.”
Since activist group 350.org started the climate divestment movement in 2012, institutional investors with $68.4 trillion under management have signed up to the six Principles for Responsible Investment, a United Nations-backed framework for incorporating environmental, social and governance issues into investment practices.
Coal has been the hardest hit with more than 850 institutions committing to quit investments in the dirtiest fuel. Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund sold off most of its coal stocks, while many of the world’s biggest banks have refused to fund coal mines and power stations.
Methodism has long shunned investments in the alcohol and tobacco industries, but things aren’t so clear cut with climate change.
The church has said it will divest from companies that aren’t aligned with the Paris Agreement by 2020, but for Beer there’s “no hard cut-off.” While the Methodists are “stewards of God’s creation,” theoretically, resource companies can be aligned with Paris, he said.
“We have a guardianship role of the planet,” said Beer, adding that decisions to divest must be carefully weighed up. “We’re not trying to be holier than thou. We can’t just do it to feel good.”
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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.
