2018.08.21 #climate change #business
DsSmog UK, in one of their recent exclusive
investigation news, demonstrated evidence that it took oil company Shell
more than 16 years to directly warn its shareholders that climate policy posed
a financial risk to the company's business model despite knowing - in private
and for decades - about the relationship between its products and climate
change.
Shell started commissioning confidential work about the impact of burning fossil fuels on the global climate as early as 1981. However, analysis by DeSmog UK and DeSmog found that Shell did not start mentioning the possibility of climate change to shareholders in annual reports before 1991 - 10 years after the company started the research stream. And only until 2004, Shell started to give a clear warning to its shareholders about the financial risks "related to the impact of climate change" and attached to their investments.
It's another classical case that corporate may hide from stakeholders - e.g. their investors, their supervising department, workers on their value chain - on risks arising from their own product and/or business, either on a personal health level or on a global level. Working with private sector is important, late lessons must be leaned though ...
For more details, please refer to the DeSmog UK original report.