Newswire — For investors in Big Oil, the fight against the climate crisis has lost momentum in 2022, according to Follow This – a group of over 8,000 green shareholders in oil and gas companies.
Follow This said that the recently updated CA100+ benchmarks confirm that no oil major is Paris-aligned. Despite this, shareholder votes for Paris-consistent targets decreased in 2022.
According to the organization, oil majors can now claim to have the support of a majority of their shareholders to continue with their inadequate climate action for another year. For example, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden refused to commit to absolute emissions reductions by 2030.
Follow This did state that, although votes did decrease, around one-third of shareholders still joined together in a shareholder rebellion, urging companies to set Paris-consistent targets.
“We thank the investors that voted for curbing emissions this decade. They are the true change agents in the fossil fuel industry, an industry that has proven to be change-averse for decades – Big Oil will make or break the Paris Accord. Together, we must convince more shareholders that Big Oil will only change course when we unify our message and vote in favor of Paris alignment,” Follow This founder Mark van Baal said.
An analysis of voting behavior in previous years showed two kinds of voting rationales – one group insists on science-based targets and votes FOR all climate resolutions at Big Oil while another group settles for company-issued targets or disclosures and votes AGAINST climate resolutions at companies with targets or disclosures that are not Paris-consistent
The first group has been growing exponentially in recent years. At Shell, votes increased from 6 percent in 2017 and 2018 to 14 percent in 2020 and 30 percent in 2021. The increase in votes occurred despite Shell’s yearly advancements of its ambitions or targets.
But now, BlackRock – the world’s largest money manager – explained that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had changed the environment, making them wary of proposals to oil majors which request targets for reducing emissions in their supply chains and of their customers.
Follow This reminded that Engine No.1, another green investor in Big Oil and holder of several seats on the Exxon board, was convinced by Exxon that Scope 3 targets are not reasonable.
“We didn’t support proposals that asked these companies to set targets on Scope 3 emissions in the near term because oil and gas producers cannot be precise on Scope 3 reductions in the short-term until the consumer companies are much clearer,” Engine No.1 told the Responsible Investor.
Follow This claimed that, in general, the energy crisis and the windfall profits resulting from the Ukraine war have eclipsed the climate crisis. Both crises must be dealt with simultaneously by shifting investments to renewables.
The current windfall profits from high oil prices should be used to make the enormous investments in renewables that are needed to address the climate crisis and reduce dependency on oil and gas fields that are impacted by geo-political conflict. The organization pointed out that the hardships of the current energy crisis ‘will be dwarfed by the consequences of devastating climate change.’
“These voting results are a loss in the fight against the climate crisis. In May, everybody lost except for the boards of Big Oil, who will hang on to fossil fuels investments for another year and continue to fuel the climate crisis,” Follow This explained.
*email [email protected]
Follow us on twitter
