The Guardian – Shell’s board faces a shareholder rebellion as large investors including the UK’s biggest pension scheme prepare to back a climate activist resolution.
Twenty-seven investors have agreed to back a resolution filed by the Dutch shareholder activists at Follow This that calls for the oil company to align its medium-term emissions reduction targets with the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Shareholders will be asked to vote on the resolution at the £160bn company’s annual general meeting in May. The resolution has already received the backing of investors who together hold about €4tn in assets under management, and support is expected to grow over the months before Shell’s annual general meeting, according to Mark van Baal, the founder of Follow This.
Van Baal said: “This escalation of 27 leading investors puts the call for emissions reductions by energy companies front and centre for all institutional investors.”
A Shell spokesperson said: “The 2024 resolution from Follow This is broadly unchanged from their 2023 submission, which was rejected by shareholders (as its variations have been every year since first being submitted in 2016).
“Shell’s board has previously advised shareholders that the Follow This resolution was unrealistic and simplistic, that it would have no impact on mitigating climate change, have negative consequences for our customers, and was against the interests of the company and our shareholders.”
