Co-operative Asset Management along with 141 other institutional and individual shareholders have forced a resolution onto Royal Dutch Shell grop's annual meeting in May, as they call for the audit committee to undertake a review of the risks associated with the extraction of tar sands.

"Given Shell's level of commitment to oil sands, there is a greater obligation to shareholders, to reassure how it would cope under a number of different scenarios", said Nial O'Shea, Head of Responsible Investing at Co-operative Asset Management.

"What if carbon capture and storage proves too costly for tar sands? What if sustained high oil prices and carbon regulation lead to switching away from marginal, high cost, high carbon sources? And then there is the cost of cleaning up the locality. Companies must be more rigorous and transparent with their investors", he added.

Read more on this first step towards an historic co-operative climate victory at