Our Business Principles allow and encourage us to contribute to debates on important policy issues that affect our business, our employees or the local communities where we operate (see below). The Principles prohibit payments by Shell companies to political parties. This is to avoid Shell companies buying or being perceived to be buying favours. According to our annual internal questionnaire, we made no payments to political parties or campaigns in 2006. See the Performance Data page for more on this data.

Like many other corporations in the USA, Shell Oil Company administers a political action committee (Shell Oil Company Employees’ Political Awareness Committee). It is a voluntary, employee-run and employee-funded organisation, that contributes money to political parties or individual candidates for political office, or organisations that support them. The Committee made $109,000 in donations between 2005 and 2006. All the donations it makes are publicly disclosed to the USA Government’s Federal Election Commission. While Shell Oil Company provides administrative support to the Committee, it does not fund the Committee’s donations nor does it make any political contributions itself.

Responsible public advocay

Our Guidance Note on Responsible Lobbying, distributed to staff in 2006, lays out the do’s and don’ts for making our views known to others. Principles include being sensitive to local practices and wherever possible, working with a broad range of stakeholders. The Note is illustrated with real-world examples, like our decision to withdraw from the Global Climate Coalition in the late ’90s, when its activities were no longer compatible with our call for action on climate change.

We talk to governments directly, through industry associations and sometimes by joining with other companies and NGOs on specific issues. When engaging in public advocacy through industry groups, our voice is one of many. While we work hard to influence these groups, their positions inevitably fail to reflect our exact views on every topic. In 2006, we published on our website the names of the main trade associations, think-tanks and other organisations that speak on our behalf globally.

Recent public advocacy efforts we have undertaken include participating in the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change in the UK. Composed of 19 companies, the group is part of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’ Cambridge Business and Environment Programme. It is encouraging the UK Government to take market-based actions to address GHG emissions at home and provide international leadership on climate change.

The president of Shell Oil Company in the USA is calling publicly on behalf of Shell for government measures to set a mandatory limit on GHG emissions and allow firms to trade emission allowances.

In 2006, we advocated opening more of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration to increase energy security, because we believe it can be done in environmentally responsible ways.

In December 2006, the president of Shell Nederland BV and other industry leaders published an open letter on behalf of their companies encouraging the Dutch Government to focus more attention on environmental issues.

In January 2007, our Chief Executive called for effective government regulation on climate change in an open letter to the Financial Times.