Financial Times | ExxonMobil has filed a lawsuit to try to stop a shareholder climate resolution from going to a vote at its annual investor meeting, in a first for the US oil major that marks an escalation in the battle between companies and environmental activists.
Exxon is suing Follow This, an Amsterdam-based investor activist group, and Arjuna Capital, a registered investment adviser, in an attempt to block a motion they have put forward calling on the company to accelerate the pace of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Companies rarely go to court to block shareholder motions, and Exxon’s case marks the first time it has done so.
It highlights a growing sense of frustration in some corporate circles with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial regulator, which has been criticised for allowing too many motions by environmental activists to be voted on at annual meetings.
The lawsuit is likely to be closely watched by corporate America, and if Exxon wins it could have a chilling effect on shareholder petitions.
Big technology companies and Wall Street banks have sometimes faced nearly a dozen shareholder proposals each at their annual meetings.
Follow This and Arjuna’s proposal calls on Exxon shareholders to push the company “to go beyond [its] current plans” and accelerate the pace of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The new effort should include targets and timetables, the proposal says.
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