Eleven investors urge peers to vote for resolution 23 at Shell’s AGM on May 19
PRESS RELEASE
Investors call on peers to vote for the Follow This resolution at Shell. In an public letter sent to over 1,800 investors ahead of Shell’s AGM on May 19, 11 co-filing institutions encourage fellow shareholders to vote for the Follow This resolution.
“Transparency is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” the investors state in the letter.
“This letter takes investor stewardship a step further: Ten years ago, 99% of investors voted with management and engaged behind closed doors. First, they voted. Then, they co-filed. Today, they publicly call on peers to join them,” says Mark van Baal, CEO of Follow This.
“This public letter shows that institutional investors are no longer willing to accept silence on the most consequential question facing the oil and gas industry,” adds Van Baal. “Shell’s board has told shareholders to vote against knowing more. These investors are telling them the opposite.”
Resolution 23
The Follow This resolution, co-filed with 21 institutional investors representing €1.2 trillion in assets, calls on Shell to publish how it plans to create shareholder value under declining demand scenarios. The International Energy Agency projects a decline in oil and gas demand after 2029.
The vote at Shell’s AGM will send a signal to the entire oil and gas sector. The stakes are clear from what happened at BP: the company blocked an identical Follow This resolution from its AGM agenda on April 23, and shareholders responded by delivering an 18% vote against the chair’s re-election and majority votes against two board resolutions.
Public letter
You can find the public letter here.
Investors who signed the public letter
Eleven of the 21 co-filing investors have signed the public letter. The remaining co-filers were unable to sign due to internal policies.
- Bernische Pensionskasse
- Ethos Foundation
- Falkirk Council Pension Fund
- Lothian Pension Fund
- Mercy IS
- Ofi Invest AM
- Ostrum AM
- Pensionskasse Stadt Zürich
- Retraites Populaires
- Swiss Federal Pension Fund PUBLICA
- West Yorkshire Pension Fund
