INVESTOR BRIEFING — AGMs Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil and Chevron
Investors still have the chance to vote for medium-term scope 3 targets in line with Paris at Shell (23rd May), TotalEnergies (26th May), Exxon and Chevron (31st May). Without a shareholder mandate to adopt and implement targets to reduce the lion’s share of their emissions (i.e. Scope 3), these companies will continue to externalise the climate costs of their oil and gas business, threatening entire portfolios held by diversified investors.
Last month, increased investor support for Paris-aligned emissions at BP signals growing recognition by investors that mitigating the climate risk posed by high emitting companies is in the best interest of their portfolio. A vote in favour of Paris aligned Scope 3 targets at the abovementioned four supermajors is crucial because:
- It creates clarity on which investors prioritize Paris alignment and will provide the company with a clear mandate to align its climate aims accordingly. Votes for climate resolutions are increasingly being used and observed as indication of climate credibility by asset managers, asset owners, pension beneficiaries, media, and the public.
- Diversified investors have a fiduciary duty to mitigate systemic risks by using collective shareholder action to protect the interest of their portfolio. Systems-first investing suggests that “insisting on medium-term targets aligned with scenarios that avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change prioritizes systemic concerns over individual company cash flows, and thus protects diversified investors from corresponding catastrophic risk” (The Shareholder Commons).
- It encourages companies to harness opportunities to mitigate climate risk and align their business with Paris. For example, a vote for the climate resolution encourages directors to invest recent windfall profits in renewable energy; According to the IEA, “These windfalls gains provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity […] for major oil and gas companies to do more to diversify their spending.”
- Twenty institutional investors (managing around € 2.1 trillion in total) have already expressed support by co-filing one or more of the Follow This climate resolutions at Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, and Chevron.
Before you cast your votes for the remaining AGMs at Big Oil, please consider that no super major is Paris-aligned. Read below more information on why the 2030 targets of TotalEnergies, Chevron and ExxonMobil fall short.
Consortium of investors and ISS ask TotalEnergies to align its targets with Paris
Investors are increasingly concerned about the long-term returns for their beneficiaries. 17 institutional investors, alongside Follow This, have filed a climate resolution at TotalEnergies, requesting the company to align its 2030 targets with Paris.
The Company’s current targets covering Scope 3 for 2030 are not yet Paris-aligned; neither the company’s intensity target, nor its absolute target covering Scope 3, is expected to lead to large-scale (net) reductions in absolute emissions in this crucial decade. TotalEnergies confirms this in its Carbon Disclosure Project response (CDP).*
This week, prominent proxy advisor ISS has recommended shareholders to vote in favour of the resolution. The advisor agrees that TotalEnergies has not proven its Scope 3 targets to be in line with Paris. According to ISS, the company’s plan “shows lack of rigor, notably with regards to the 2030 worldwide Scope 3 objective”.
Alongside investors and advisors, 188 scientists and experts have also condemned TotalEnergies’ continued reliance on business as usual. The group calls on shareholders to vote in favour of the shareholder resolution requesting Paris aligned Scope 3 targets and against the company’s own climate strategy.
Oil majors like TotalEnergies have the scale, capital, and knowledge to help the world transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources. A vote in favour of shareholder resolution ‘Item A’ on May 26th will encourage TotalEnergies to invest accordingly to drive down emissions, thereby safeguarding the long-term future of the company and the global economy.
Resolution and supporting statement
US oil majors Chevron and Exxon lag peers on Scope 3
On May 31st, shareholders will be able to vote for resolutions requesting Paris-aligned medium-term emission reduction targets at US oil and gas majors ExxonMobil and Chevron. At ExxonMobil, resolution No.9 was co-filed by leading asset managers DeGroof Petercam Asset Management (DPAM), Achmea Investment Management, Van Lanschot Kempen, and Arjuna Capital. Resolution No. 6 at Chevron was filed alongside DPAM, AxA Investment managers and Arjuna Capital.
While no supermajor is Paris-aligned, the largest US oil majors, ExxonMobil and Chevron, lag significantly behind their European counterparts; they continue to deny responsibility for the emissions of their products. Their current strategies are far from Paris-aligned as:
- Neither company has set a sufficient target for its scope 3 emissions; these emissions constitute over 90% of their total emission profile. Exxon has not set Scope 3 targets at all, while Chevron has responded only symbolically:
- Chevron received a majority vote for a Follow This shareholder proposal in 2021 which requested ‘substantial cuts in emissions’; the company responded with an approximate 5% reduction in Portfolio Carbon Intensity by 2028 (which merges all scopes of emissions into one metric). This is far from a substantial reduction; it lags the commitments of peers by order of magnitude and is not aligned with a 1.5 degrees pathway according to the CA100+ benchmark.
- Exxon has yet to set a target to reduce Scope 3 emissions. The Company stated that it will pursue a similar “Life-cycle Analysis”; however, Exxon has made no updates to its targets, which currently only cover their scope 1 and 2 emissions.
- Both companies made record profits in 2022. Despite this, their spending on low-carbon and renewable energy remains miniscule. The CA100+ Net Zero Benchmark indicator (6.1) confirms that neither Exxon, nor Chevron is working to decarbonize its capital expenditures.
Read our exempt solicitations at these companies which advocate for a vote in favour of Proposal 9 at Exxon and Proposal 6 at Chevron in light of the shortcomings of these companies’ targets.
Read exempt solicitation at Exxon
Read exempt solicitation at Chevron
Voting for Paris – from Shell on May 23rd to Chevron and Exxon on May 31st
Last week, Follow This encouraged shareholders to vote for climate resolution 26 at the Shell AGM on the 23rd of May as Shell’s current targets will not lead to large-scale absolute emissions reductions by 2030. Starting then, investors will have little over a week to demonstrate where they stand on Paris alignment from the oil and gas sector.
It is not too late to send a clear signal that all companies need to drive down emissions this decade. Clear investor support for the climate resolutions at Shell, TotalEnergies, Chevron and ExxonMobil will create clarity on which investors prioritize Paris alignment and will provide the company with a clear mandate to align its climate aims accordingly.
A vote in favour of these shareholder resolutions is the only formal way to urge Big Oil to reduce overall emissions this decade; voting against will enable these companies to persist in delaying emission reductions this crucial decade and endanger the overall value of your portfolio.
