Investors of ExxonMobil and Chevron vote at annual shareholder meetings Wednesday on whether the two oil giants should do more to address climate change following a historic global climate agreement.
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Activist speakers included Anna Kalinsky, the granddaughter of former Exxon climate scientist James Black.
Mason, who helps manage £6.7bn of assets for the Church Commissioners for England, said it wasn’t just the environment that was at risk, but also the billions of dollars invested in Exxon, if it does not adapt quickly to a changing world.
CEO Tillerson made an impassioned defence of the use of fossil fuels well into the future.
Sidewalk protests continue to be a staple, and there will be one this year outside Exxon’s gathering in Dallas involving groups alleging that Exxon misled the public and shareholders on its early climate-change research.
In the wake of these revelations about the gulf between what Exxon knew and what the company did about climate change, the company has become the focus of investigations by state attorneys general from New York, California and a number of other states. Industry businesses will be urged to accept climate resolutions and join the battle to stop global warming and climate change following the signing of the Paris Agreement last month.
A few minutes later, she told the same story inside the call during discussion of the shareholder resolutions.
Exxon had tried to block the resolution from being heard at its meeting, but the US Securities and Exchange Commission regulator ruled that it must include the resolution among Wednesday’s votes.
In December, 195 governments pledged to cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels as part of the Paris climate change accord. The Company is involved in the manufacturing of petroleum products and transportation and sale of crude oil natural gas and petroleum products.
“It is impossible for them to do business for the next 100 years as they have the last 100 years”, added Stringer, who supports the risk-disclosure resolution. Every year shareholders can file resolutions to be voted on during the meeting, and this year six of the 10 shareholder resolutions are focused on getting Exxon to be more clear about where it stands when it comes to global warming.
Still, the proposal to put a climate expert on Exxon Mobil’s board gained support compared to previous year, when 79 percent of shareholders voted against it. And the investors did approve a non-binding resolution to allow minority shareholders that own 3 percent of the company to nominate directors to the board, a proposal that could potentially bolster the influence of climate activists on the board.
The sponsor wants Chevron to report its reserves of oil and natural gas in British Thermal Units, arguing it is a better metric to track the company’s effect on, and vulnerability to, climate change.
In the past year, information has surfaced revealing the fact the Exxon-Mobil has been aware of the impact of carbon emissions on climate change for decades, and rather than take action by changing their business strategy, chose instead to not only keep it secret, but to actively support a campaign of denial.
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“We really have to step up and make sure that companies are in sync”. We will see! Check back to 3p for updates. “It’s inaccurate to say the company has a policy”, he said. But Exxon’s shareholders were unwilling to join them.
