An activist investor targets Shell

“THERE IS PERHAPSESGGHG no bigger opportunity than in ‘Big Oil’, and specifically, at Royal Dutch Shell.” Regarding Shell as an environmental, social and governance investment is the hyper-green explanation offered by Dan Loeb for his move against one of the fossil-fuel industry’s biggest firms. Third Point, an activist hedge fund run by Mr Loeb, revealed on October 27th that it has taken a stake (thought to be worth $750m) in the Anglo-Dutch oil firm. His aim, Mr Loeb declared, is to unleash trapped shareholder value by forcing the breakup of the energy supermajor.The accelerating race to decarbonise the global economy has put the world’s oil companies in a bind. They are denounced as immoral carbon-spewers for peddling petroleum. On October 28th, executives from several big oil firms were due to be grilled by America’s Congress, with some politicians vowing a repeat of the treatment handed out to Big Tobacco. In May Shell was ordered by a Dutch court to slash its emissions of greenhouse gases (s) by 45% below the levels in 2019 by the end of this decade, a ruling that it is now challenging in a higher court.