Shell’s AGM takes place today, on 19th May 2026, so we’re breaking down what it is, why it matters, and what you can do to help hold Shell accountable.
What is Shell’s AGM?
Shell’s Annual General Meeting - or AGM - is an opportunity for shareholders of the company to vote on corporate matters, from basic business like approving the company’s annual accounts and director appointments, to special resolutions brought by shareholders, such as this year’s Shareholder Resolution 23 by Follow This, which requests that Shell address the declining demand for oil and gas.
Why is Shell’s AGM important?
An AGM is an important event in the calendar because it is a crucial moment for transparency and accountability between a company and those with a stake in its business.
But Shell’s AGM is delivering neither true transparency nor accountability. Shell’s business decisions impact us all, not just those who own financial shares in the company. When an oil giant chooses to increase their emissions, ignore climate science, and lobby against climate action, instead of investing in the transition to clean energy, they are choosing to fuel the climate crisis, putting us all in danger.
This danger is hitting ordinary people all over the world, whether it’s UK homeowners losing everything to floods, those in LA whose homes were annihilated by wildfires, or people in the Philippines who have had their lives devastated by a typhoon - the costs of climate change are endless.
Climate impacts like these have affected frontline communities in countries like the Philippines for years and years. People lose homes, sustain injury, lose loved ones, and suffer psychological trauma from extreme weather made worse and more likely by this crisis.
That’s why Shell’s AGM is relevant to the Odette Case - a fight for accountability from a company whose profit-driven decisions are fuelling extreme weather and devastation.
What’s in Shell’s annual report?
While the company may want you to focus on how much profit it made, here are the things revealed in Shell’s annual report that you should pay attention to:
- In 2024, Shell emitted four times the annual emissions of the Philippines.
- In 2025, Shell cut 11,000 jobs (meaning they reduced their workforce by around 12% between 2024 and 2025).
- 70% (or over two-thirds) of Shell’s investment in 2025 went towards oil and gas, whilst just 7% was invested in “low-carbon energy solutions”
- In 2025, for every $1 invested in “low-carbon energy solutions”, Shell invested $9 in oil and gas and handed $15 to shareholders.
Who can attend Shell’s AGM?
While anyone who owns even a single share in the company is invited to attend Shell’s AGM, access is not guaranteed.
For the second year running, Shell has chosen to hold their AGM at a hotel at London Heathrow Airport, which has an anti-protest injunction in place, banning any person associated with any environmental group from entering the airport’s grounds. Breaching the injunction could result in up to two years in prison, fines, and/or seizure of assets. The terms of the injunction are broad, and mean it would be easy for Shell to dismiss anybody wishing to question them on the climate impacts of their business - like Super Typhoon Odette - as an environmental protestor, barring them from legal attendance.
In other words, Shell is hiding behind this injunction to avoid accountability
So while Shell’s AGM should be an opportunity to hold the company to account, the reality is that many people, including the typhoon survivors and their supporters, are locked out of real engagement.
How can we hold Shell to account?
On the morning of Shell’s AGM, campaigners and allies from across the UK, the Philippines, and Nigeria united outside Shell’s headquarters in London to show international solidarity and support for legal action against the company.
The protest led by UK-based campaign group Fossil Free London brought the human cost of Shell’s recent $6.92 billion quarterly profit to the company’s front door, and united two frontline struggles for justice in the Philippines (the Odette Case) and communities in the Niger Delta, both suing Shell in London courts.
This display of creative defiance and international solidarity comes just after Shell announced nearly $7 billion in profits in just three months, boosted by Trump’s invasion of Iran, and faced public criticism for ‘profiteering’ from conflict and the rise in global fuel prices.
Shell can — and must — pay for the damage it has inflicted on those devastated by Super Typhoon Odette.
If they win their case, it could mean that elite companies like Shell can be held responsible for the costs of the harm they’ve caused. Their fight is our fight, and we need to show that we stand with them.