INVESTOR BRIEFING
Investors are asking us why they should support the Follow This resolution at BP (resolution 13 at the AGM on May 12).
The crucial reason to vote in favour of resolution 13 is that BP’s current aims should be advanced to Paris-consistent targets. These are the most significant discrepancies between BP’s aims and Paris-consistent targets:
- According to the CA100+ Company Benchmark BP has no Paris-consistent targets and investments.
- BP expects “the absolute level of emissions to grow between now and 2030, even as the carbon intensity falls” (Reimagine Energy, slides & script).
- BP’s “net-zero by 2050” ambition only covers its own production, BP’s carbon footprint (produced and traded emissions) will only halve by 2050.
- The reason BP and Follow This didn’t agree to a joint resolution, as both parties intended in 2020, was that BP wanted a resolution that supports its current climate aims, while Follow This maintained its ask for Paris-consistent targets.
Please find a detailed briefing here.
Back to the drawing board?
The board of BP recommends shareholders to vote against resolution 13 (AGM notice of meeting, page 24); BP claims to have a “Paris-consistent strategy” by cutting “the lifecycle carbon intensity of the products it sells by 50% by 2050 or sooner (includes Scope 3)”.
In the same response to resolution 13, BP reasons: “Going back to the drawing board on strategy, targets and aims would disrupt our business plans.” (page 24)
This is exactly what shareholders should request of BP by voting in favour of resolution 13: BP should go back to the drawing board and disrupt its current business plans which involve an increase in emissions.
Engagement and voting?
During our investor symposium panelists from institutional investors agreed that oil majors will only act on climate when investors practice strong engagement and vote for climate resolutions.
Anne Simpson, chair of CA100+ said: “The question about voting is a simple one: it’s the point in which you move from talk to action,” and “No company has taken the capex decisions that are needed, even a company like BP.”
Oil and gas companies need a clear signal to change course to protect your assets in the global economy from devastating climate change.
Climate proposal (resolution 13)
‘Shareholders support the company to set and publish targets that are consistent with the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement: to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.’ full text
