Royal Dutch Shell: Company Strategies for Dealing with Environmental Issues

Abstract

The intricate interplay among environmental pressure groups, oil companies, and governments is revealed from the perspective of the Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell. An examination of three environmental issues demonstrates the company's awareness of such problems and describes its efforts to contain potential damage to the degree permitted by existing technological and economic constraints. The industry view is that government measures should create a level playing field and should be effective and economically feasible. While pressure groups are skilled at calling attention to environmental problems, industry highlights the tradeoffs between different societal aims that are entailed in tackling these problems. Governments are left to fi nd the best ways to weigh conflicting interests.

A greener shade of black? Statoil, the Norwegian government and climate change,1990—2005

“…Shell did not go as far as BP in terms of green rebranding but decided to make greater use of lower carbon fuels, build a commercial renewables business and cut 10% of its greenhouse gas emissions from local operations by 2002. 98 For Statoil, which at this point had become one of the world's largest net sellers of crude oil, BP's and Shell's path became the one to follow. Statoil endorsed Kyoto and concentrated its climate strategy around the same three elements as the other leading European companies: support for the reduction of greenhouse gases, commitment to lower emissions from its own operations, and reorientation of its business to develop clean energy technology and provide cleaner fuels.…”

A Climate of Change? The Oil Industry and Decarbonization in Historical Perspective

“…However, that acceptance did not extend to climate change mitigation. 40 If CO 2 emissions were to become stringently regulated and limited, there were no easy technological fixes to allow oil companies to continue with business as usual. Although some oil companies had been aware since the 1970s of the possibility of carbon emissions driving global warming, the industry did not address it before it became a public issue in the late 1980s with the establishment of the IPCC to assess the science on human-made climate change.…”

Review of periodical literature published in 2010

“…The article examines how the Mecca group came to prominence within this industry before succumbing to a takeover in 1970. The issue of corporate social responsibility as it relates to Royal Dutch Shell is examined by Sluyterman, while Guest analyses the impact of board structures on UK executive pay. In terms of changes to industrial concentration associated with the entry of efficient American firms into the UK economy, Gourvish and Tennent construct a dataset for the British music industry between 1952 and 1975.…”