BBC | BP’s new chair faced 18% dissent and shareholders rejected scrapping climate reporting, Mark van Baal told BBC World Service.
Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This, told the BBC: “BP has really closed the door for its shareholders. It was clear they wanted to get over with it as soon as possible.”
On the dissent against the new chair: “Normally a new chair gets 99% of the votes. If a new chair gets 18% of the votes against him, that’s extremely embarrassing. A very strong signal from shareholders that they’re not happy with how he’s managing the company, that he has exacerbated the already shaky governance his predecessor bequeathed him. Normally, a new chair gets the benefit of the doubt. 18% is an embarrassment.”
Two special resolutions failed to clear the 70% threshold, gaining only 47% support. More than 50% voted against BP’s plan to scrap parts of its existing climate reporting.
On the vote against scrapping climate reporting, van Baal pointed to long-term investors: pension funds invested in the global economy face losses from the climate crisis, and want to know what the largest CO2 emitters are doing about it.
Asked about the wider industry, van Baal said no oil major has ever made a serious effort to transition. Investments in clean energy stayed around 10%, while 90% continued to flow to fossil fuels.
“BP is trying to break down governance. They try to break down shareholder rights, and they did that by refusing our resolution, and they tried to do that by scrapping climate reporting. So BP wants to distance themselves as far as possible from the shareholders.
