INVESTOR BRIEFING incl. speakers update Follow This symposium
Following the latest CA100+ benchmark and IPCC report, this briefing is to bring you up to date on ten Climate Resolutions at Big Oil that need your votes in April and May.
CA100+ benchmark: not a single oil major is Paris-aligned
Despite net zero emissions by 2050 pledges (indicator 1) by some oil majors, no oil major is aligned with 1.5°C on three other crucial indicators: medium- and short-term emissions reduction targets (indicator 2.3 and 3.3) and capital expenditure (indicator 6.1b), signifies the Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark.
Oil majors misuse engagement as an excuse not to set Paris-aligned targets
Oil majors, for example Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron misuse engagement to claim that most investors support their current strategies, even though these strategies do not decrease absolute emissions by 2030:
- BP claims to have “heard clear support for [BP’s] strategy” during “extensive engagement with investors after the vote”,
- Shell claims “broad indications of support for Shell’s strategy”; in written responses to voting results, required by the UK corporate governance code,
- ConocoPhillips claims that during engagement “Stockholders overwhelmingly did not express an expectation for ConocoPhillips to set a scope 3 target as set forth in the climate resolution” (proxy statement, page 16), and
- Chevron states “Most stockholders generally did not favor shrinking Chevron’s traditional oil and gas business or shifting the core business to renewables as ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions” (2022 notice of the Chevron Corporation Annual meeting of stockholders, page 35).
As engagement happens behind closed doors, we can never be sure of the results reported by the companies. What is clear is that in 2021, investors increasingly voted in favor of emission reductions; 21% at BP (up from 8.4% in 2019), 30% at Shell (up from 14% in 2020) and 58% at ConocoPhillips and 61% at Chevron.
Therefore, only engagement combined with voting will send a clear and unambiguous signal to the boards of these companies.
Finally, we are pleased that Hilde Røed, Senior Vice President Climate and Sustainability at Equinor, and Lars Dijkstra, Chief Sustainability Officer at Van Lanschot Kempen have confirmed to speak during our investor symposium on April 19.
You can register here.
We look forward to the next AGM season and to welcoming you on our online investor symposium.
