The 14th of February is all about sharing the love and letting those closest to you know how you feel, and activist groups have not held back in sharing their views this Valentine’s Day.
- Environmental activists have taken Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to send ‘love letters’ with messages on oil and gas.
- Paid to Pollute urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “end his toxic relationship with his partners in crime”, Shell.
- Extinction Rebellion sent a series of messages to Standard Chartered demanding stronger progress on its net zero pledge.
Protestor group, Paid to Pollute, has been dishing out relationship advice in time for the romantic holiday, urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “end his toxic relationship with his partners in crime”, Shell (LON: SHEL).
Posting a video edit of new Shell chief executive Wael Sawan’s speech covering his firm’s 2022 annual financial report, the group made their already obvious feelings for the group clear by splicing in clips from pop culture to twist the meaning of Mr Sawan’s words.
Over a week since @Shell reported its highest-ever earnings & the government is still handing out billions of pounds of fossil fuel subsidies.
đź’” This #ValentinesDay we urge @RishiSunak to end his toxic relationship with his partners in crime.#EnergyCrisis #CostOfLivingCrisis pic.twitter.com/gKNLCbBgrY
— Paid to Pollute (@PaidToPollute) February 14, 2023
At the beginning of the month, the oil major posted record annual profits, reporting pre-tax takings of $64.8 billion in 2022, a gigantic increase on 2021’s figure of $29.8bn.
At the time of this announcement, environmental groups accused Shell of “profiteering from climate destruction and immense human suffering”.
Criticising both Shell, and Sunak’s government Paid to Pollute, write: “the government is still handing out billions of pounds of fossil fuel subsidies.”
Romantic dinner for bank boss
Not to be outdone, Extinction Rebellion (XR) joined in on the Valentine-themed activism.
Those coming into work today at Standard Chartered’s London offices were met with a romantic table for two set up outside the front door.
Complete with a bottle of bubbly, flowers, chocolates and a couple of love letters to the chief executive Bill Winters, this set-up is possibly more romantic than some dates people will be heading out for this evening.
However, instead of sweet little nothings being written to flatter Mr Winters, these love letters contained a list of demands and criticisms.
The first of these notes contained a list of backhanded compliments, these included “We totally love that you’ve invested $1.2b in renewables since 2016; pity it is only 4.5% of your total energy funding.” and “We love that you aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from your funding activity by 2050 – shame it’s going to be 20 years too late.”
It’s always nice to see romances blossoming on this holiday and XR clearly agrees, ending this note with: “We love that we can talk to you – is this the start of something?”
The second note, titled ‘Bill Winters Must’, sets out a list of demands for the Standard Chartered boss.
Setting out four demands the letter can be viewed below:
