A leading activist group has tabled shareholder resolutions calling on four of the West’s biggest energy companies to cut emissions more aggressively this decade in a bid to rekindle investor pressure on big oil companies over emissions. climate goals.
In motions submitted to BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron, Dutch activist shareholder Follow This called on companies to set clear targets to reduce their Scope 3 emissions by 2030, in order to be “consistent” with the objectives of the Paris climate agreements to limit global warming.
The group said the moves, seen by the Financial Times and expected to be disclosed on Monday, were co-sponsored by investors with more than $1.3 billion in assets under management.
Scope 3 emissions, which are the carbon produced when a product sold by a company is burned, account for 80-90% of oil and gas companies’ total carbon emissions, according to consultants Wood Mackenzie.
“No major company is planning to cut absolute emissions by 2030. And that’s what investors want,” said Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This. We hope to get smokescreens out of all of this.
Support weather Movements among oil producers have gained ground in recent years but have fallen this year after major investors said they were becoming too prescriptive.
Overall support for environmental and social movements fell from 36% to 27% in 2022, according to ISS data analyzed by asset manager BlackRock, which cut own support half.
The latest Follow This resolution, which also called for more aggressive climate targets, won the support of just over 20% of shareholders in Shell in May, against 30% the previous year, and only 15% of BP shareholders, against 21% a year earlier.
“We believe we can regain momentum and we have to,” van Baal said. “I think investors should realize – and they are realizing now – that if we don’t regain momentum, it’s another lost year.”
Shell criticized the latest Follow These proposals, saying there was no standard methodology for determining compliance with the Paris Agreement and insisting that the goals of the pact were already aligned with its goals.
“Follow This has consistently offered shareholder resolutions that are simplistic, unrealistic and contrary to Shell’s best interests,” he said.
Shell says it will reduce absolute emissions from its own operations – also known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions – by 50% by 2030.
It has pledged to reduce the “carbon intensity” of the products it sells by 20% by 2030, but not absolute emissions. Carbon intensity reflects the relative emissions of all of its energy, allowing Shell to offset the carbon produced by its oil and gas products against its low and zero carbon solutions.
“Continued and targeted investment in oil and gas will remain necessary to meet global energy demands over the coming decades as they transition to a low-carbon future,” Shell added.
BP, on the other hand, has pledged to reduce its emissions scope 3 by 35-45% by 2030, but this only applies to the oil and gas it produces, not oil and gas. gas it trades. Traded products are instead subject to a carbon intensity target. BP declined to comment.
Chevron said it “values the contributions of its investors with the goal of enhancing shareholder value” and will evaluate all proposals received. ExxonMobil declined to comment.
The moves were backed by investors including Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in France, Degroof Petercam Asset Management in Belgium and Achmea Asset Management in the Netherlands.
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