Big name investors tell Exxon, others to publicise climate change targets

Dec 23, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Leading Investors with assets under management of more than 1.3 trillion Euros have joined Activist Shareholder group, ‘Follow This’ in filing climate resolutions against four of the world’s biggest oil producing companies, demanding that they create green targets and make them public.

‘Follow This’ said in a statement that Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, and Chevron have received resolutions requesting that the oil majors align themselves with the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce emissions by 2030 and to disclose exactly how they intend to do that.

Just recently, international observer group,’ InfluenceMaps’ released a report accusing the said oil companies of continuing to mislead the world on their climate change intentions. The group had said that based on their findings, the oil companies were utilizing “a systematic strategy to portray themselves as positive and proactive on the issue of climate change.” They said that the companies’ commitment to climate action was inconsistent with their capital investments, and where they claimed to be making strides with climate change, there was no real information on what they were doing, and progress made.

The Investors owning 1.3 trillion Euros in assets, now adding their voice to have the oil companies own up to their responsibilities, is said to be a plus in getting the Producers to confirm to the Paris Agreement. “This new and significant commitment from some of the world’s most important investors takes our fight against climate breakdown to a new level,” Mark van Baal, founder of ‘Follow This’ said. “Our call for Paris-aligned targets has landed in the capital markets, in effect moving this crucial issue to centre stage for responsible institutional Investors. We expect that more Investors will follow their leading peers and vote for change at Big Oil,” he said.

‘Follow This’ said that “Together with responsible Investors, we have to counter Big Oil’s new fallacies.” They noted that oil companies have argued that the current energy crisis eclipses the climate crisis, and that argument has afforded huge windfall profits, while backtracking on Scope 3 of climate action in 2022. The group said it engaged with eleven oil majors since May, and they persisted, with no exception; that the majority of their shareholders showed support for their current inadequate strategies by voting against the ‘Follow This’ resolutions at that time. “We hope that Investors will finally realize that Big Oil will hang on to fossil fuels as long as possible, unless they vote in a different direction,” the statement said.

‘Follow This’ said however that “Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach.” It will therefore focus on Scope 3 to prevent smokescreens by the companies. “The focus on Scope 3 by 2030 leaves the oil majors no wiggle room for smokescreens about ‘net zero emissions by 2050’ or reduction targets for operational emissions -Scope 1 and 2, around 5% of emissions.” Despite ‘net zero by 2050’ targets, none of the four oil majors is even close to Paris-aligned emissions reductions plans for 2030,” the group urged.

‘Follow This’ explained that when the oil companies convinced shareholders this year that the energy crisis, along with windfall profits should trump the climate crisis, voting on green action decreased. “Nonetheless, shareholder rebellions of 15% at BP, 20% at Shell, 28% at ExxonMobil and 33% at Chevron voted in favour of Paris-aligned targets.” “Only when voting regains momentum, oil majors will change. Otherwise, oil majors will continue to claim to have a vast majority of shareholders behind their current inadequate targets. Our campaigns have shown that only increasing investors’ votes compel oil majors to advance their targets,” the group said.

‘Follow This’ noted therefore that it will focus on four of the highest emitters in the world in 2023 and the resolutions will counter Big Oil’s new fallacies that the current energy crisis should eclipse the climate crisis and that investors resolutions are tailored per company, what they said is BP’s distraction that the resolution is ‘generic’.

For 2023, six Investors in Europe and the US (managing € 1.3 trillion in total) co-filed one or more of the four climate resolutions. Four of those Investors are Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM, France, managing € 75 billion, co-filed-Shell), Degroof Petercam Asset Management (DPAM, Belgium, € 51 billion, all resolutions), Achmea Investment Management (Netherlands, € 175 billion, ExxonMobil) and Arjuna Capital (US, $400 million, Chevron and ExxonMobil).” The other major Investors will make public statements later, Follow This said.

‘InfluenceMap’ just a week ago highlighted in its latest report on ‘Big Oil’s Real Agenda’ compared and contrast the public communications, business operations, and policy engagement of five major oil companies. It said that 60 percent of oil companies’ public information deliver green messages while none of those disclosed the strategies that inform their public messaging on climate change, nor the resources dedicated to related activities. Using cost estimates based on the number of communications and media staff the companies employ, ‘InfluenceMap’s’ said its analysis suggests that the oil companies are spending around US$750 million each year cumulatively on climate-related communication activities. In contrast, only 12 percent of the five companies’ 2022 capital expenditure (CAPEX) is forecasted to be dedicated to ‘low carbon’ activities, the group reported.