Shell’s £5m tree-planting scheme ‘is greenwashing’

Carbon-offsetting plan is ‘small beer’ for oil giant, say government officials before accepting anyway

SHELL’S plan to use Scottish forests for carbon offsetting is “greenwashing”, government officials warned before accepting £5 million for the scheme to go ahead.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) said that the money was “small beer” for the oil giant and warned that they were at risk of being “worked over by Shell’s formidable PR machinery”.

In emails released under Freedom of Information laws, Jo Ellis, head of planning and environment at the agency, said that she did not “want us to come across as falling for the greenwashing” and planting “will not be sufficient to offset carbon emissions for the long term”.

But the partnership to plant a million trees went ahead anyway; it was announced in October last year as part of a plan by Shell to offset emissions from customers at their petrol stations across the UK.

It comes amid concern from environmentalists the offsetting could be doing more harm than good as people wrongly believe that they are having a positive impact.

The five-year contract between Shell and FLS is to provide 250,000 carbon units by restoring forests and peatland.

The plan is to plant 200 hectares of native woodland at Glengarry, in Lochaber, over the next two years, but it has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The third, fourth and fifth year of the partnership will involve restoring native woodland or peatland at sites to be decided.

The project was announced in October when Shell claimed they would be “the first retailer to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from customers’ petrol and diesel purchases” at its UK petrol stations.

But internal emails, released by investigative blog the Ferret, show that FLS had reservations about the claims.

In August 2019, Ms Ellis said that she was “excited” about the money, but warned: “I don’t want us to come across as falling for the greenwashing.

“The fact remains that mitigation work such as tree planting will not be sufficient to offset carbon emissions for the long term (we need to be reducing the use of fossil fuels) and the tiny amount Shell is putting into green initiatives is dwarfed by what it is still spending on investigating new oil and gas reserves, and in blocking initiatives to set legally binding emissions reductions targets.”

Trefor Owen, the director of land management, said that they needed to get their “lines straight” as “what Shell are offering us is relatively small beer for them, but it gets a shiny new organisation, us, to add to the list of ‘green organisations’ supporting their offsetting ambitions”.

In September 2019, Ms Ellis again raised the issue, saying: “Personally, I would have a problem with them saying anything that implies that this is going to make what they do environmentally friendly.

“This is all about reducing the harm that they do, not about them doing good.”

A month later, the project was announced and a Linkedin post by Shell described offsets as “a vital part of tackling climate change”.

Shell last night denied that they were involved in greenwashing and said they have “invested billions” in lowcarbon technologies.

A spokesman said: “We agree that action is needed now on climate change, so we fully support the Paris Agreement and the need for society to transition to a lower-carbon future. We’re committed to playing our part, by addressing our own emissions and helping customers to reduce theirs.”

Simon Hodgson, FLS chief executive, said that he valued “the free and frank exchange of views amongst staff ”, but to reduce carbon emissions in the long term “partnership working is essential”.

“No one has the perfect, complete solution for the whole problem of tackling climate change but there are many smaller steps, including enabling more people and organisations to help us plant more trees in Scotland, that can be taken towards arriving at that solution. This is one of them,” he said.

It is the second time that the Scottish government has taken an investment from a major oil company to plant trees, after a £10million donation from BP in 2009.

Emails show that FLS discussed the potential for other carbon-offsetting projects on land that they own.