- Greenpeace protesters have boarded a Shell floating oil platform which is being transported over 12,000 nautical miles to the Shetland Islands.
- Greenpeace has calculated that burning all the gas and oil from the Penguins field could create 45m tonnes of CO2 – more than the entire annual emissions of Norway.
Greenpeace protesters have boarded a Shell floating oil platform which is being transported over 12,000 nautical miles to the Shetland Islands, with signs demanding that the fossil fuel giant “Stop drilling – start paying”. On Tuesday morning, four activists from the UK, Turkey, the US, and Argentina climbed onto the 52,000-tonne heavy-lift vessel just north of the Canary Islands. They displayed a banner from the platform in what it said was a peaceful protest against the global climate devastation “caused by Shell and the wider fossil fuel industry, without paying a penny towards loss and damage”.
The protesters reached the heavy-lift vessel in three boats launched from Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship and used ropes to climb onto the deck. They then occupied the platform, which was carried on the vessel’s back. One of the occupiers, Usnea Granger, said they had left the leading Greenpeace boat early in the morning and used ropes to scale the vessel and platform. “There was a couple of meters of swell. It was a bit of an adventure to get on board,” she said, over gusts of Atlantic wind. “But we are well and safe. We have all the equipment we need to keep ourselves safe.”
Yeb Saño, Greenpeace executive director and former lead climate negotiator for the Philippines, failed to get on board the platform. He said: “We’re taking action today because when Shell extracts fossil fuels, it causes a ripple of death, destruction and displacement around the world, having the worst impact on people who are least to blame for the climate crisis.” The platform will enable Shell, which is expected to unveil adjusted annual profits of around $83bn (£67bn) later this week, to exploit further the Penguins oil and gas field, which sits 150 miles (240km) off the Shetland Islands. Greenpeace says it will be used to unlock eight new wells in the field. Greenpeace has calculated that burning all the gas and oil from the Penguins field could create 45m tonnes of CO2, more than the entire annual emissions of Norway.