Shell plc

Does the core business genuinely avoid or reduce emissions, or build climate resilience? Share of revenue that is actually 'green'. Fossil-dependent models score low.

Shell's core business produces and sells fossil fuels at massive scale; only ~13.3% of investments qualify as genuinely renewable under standardized EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, and the company has cut its renewable energy pipeline and scrapped its 2030 fossil fuel production reduction target.

Credible, science-based targets (SBTi), a real net-zero plan with progress to date, and CDP disclosure — not just a dated press release.

Shell has a 2050 net-zero ambition and Scope 1/2 absolute targets, but critically admits in SEC filings that the 2050 target is outside its operational planning period and expressly told CDP in 2023 it does not plan to develop a 1.5°C-aligned transition plan; targets are not SBTi-validated and rely heavily on an intensity metric (NCI) rather than absolute reductions.

Operational footprint, labour and social practices, and governance quality across the company's own operations and supply chain.

Shell discloses under CSRD, TCFD, and GRI frameworks and ties some executive pay to GHG KPIs, but faces active groundwater contamination and pesticide litigation, labour restructuring controversies, and ongoing governance concerns raised by ClientEarth's board-level climate risk lawsuit.

Quality of disclosure, independent third-party verification, and how much hard data backs the company's claims.

Shell publishes extensive annual reports, SEC 20-F filings, and a CDP response, and discloses a lobbying report; however, key disclosures are hedged with disclaimers, the NCI metric is proprietary and not directly comparable, the 2050 target is explicitly excluded from operational plans, and independent third-party verification of Scope 3 remains limited.

Controversies, litigation, pollution, fossil-fuel lobbying, conflict-zone involvement and governance scandals. Higher means cleaner.

Shell has accumulated severe integrity deficits: 30+ active climate-change lawsuits in the US; a landmark 2021 Dutch court emissions order (overturned on appeal in 2024); UK ASA greenwashing bans in 2023; continued membership in the American Petroleum Institute and other anti-climate-policy lobbying groups; and documented funding of organisations linked to climate disinformation.