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☆ Shell waters down 2030 carbon emissions target in latest fossil fuel industry backslide
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Fossil fuels are the main driver of the human-caused climate crisis, and science shows deep, sustained reductions to emissions are required this decade. In an annual update on its energy transition strategy on Thursday, Shell said it will target a 15-20% reduction in net carbon intensity of its energy products by 2030 compared with 2016 intensity levels. Measuring emissions by intensity means a company can technically increase its fossil fuel output and overall emissions while using offsets or adding renewable energy or biofuels to its product mix. The company retired a previous target to reduce its carbon intensity by 45% by 2035. Shell also maintained its target to halve emissions from its own operations, known as Scope 1 and 2 emissions, by 2030, saying it had already achieved more than 60% of that target.

Persons: Shell, Wael Sawan’s, “, ”, Backtrack, Mark van Baal, ” Shell Organizations: CNN Locations: “, Paris, Singapore, Germany

☆ U.S. investors rebuff big oil climate shareholder resolutions
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Netherlands-based activist group Follow This was created first to target Shell (SHEL.L) and subsequently expanded to file climate resolutions at other western majors including BP (BP.L), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Chevron (CVX.N) and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA). According to the data published by it and investors, giant U.S. investors BlackRock (BLK.N), Vanguard, State Street (STT.N) and JPMorgan (JPM.N) all voted against the Follow This resolutions this year. "Investors hold the key to tackling the climate crisis with their shareholder voting power at Big Oil. Amundi, Allianz, and UBS use their voting power to mitigate the climate crisis,” said Follow This founder Mark van Baal. This mirrors big shareholder proxy voting firm Glass Lewis and ISS, which changed some of their recommendations for this year to the detriment of Follow This, including withdrawing support for the activist resolution at Chevron.

Persons: Morgan Chase, Mike Segar, France's, ”, Mark van Baal, Glass Lewis, Shadia Nasralla, Jan Harvey Organizations: Co, New York City, REUTERS, Companies Allianz, Big U.S, Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BlackRock, Vanguard, State, JPMorgan, Paris, Britain's HSBC, HSBA.L, UBS, Germany's Allianz, Big Oil, Amundi, Allianz, Britain's, General, Exxon, ISS, Thomson Locations: New York, Big, Paris, Netherlands, Chevron's

Negotiations between Exxon and Pioneer are advanced but have not yet led to an agreement over the acquisition of the largest oil producer in Permian basin. So far, shareholders profited as the share price more than doubled since early 2021 when activist investors publicly pushed for changes. Big Oil is responsible for the bulk of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions and pressure for action is building. "Investor pressure has decreased; they're backtracking... the big investors are enabling this," said climate investment group Follow This founder Mark van Baal. Privately, investors worried if Exxon bowed out of production, someone else would pick up the slack and nothing would be gained for shareholders or energy transfer.

Persons: Olaf Scholz, Exxon Mobil's, Jim Rossman, that's, Andrew Logan, tussles, Mark van Baal, Charlie Penner, Ceres, Logan, Marguerita Choy Organizations: Environmental, Exxon, Republique, New Global Financial, Big Oil, Energy, Natural Resources, Pioneer, Barclays, Oil, Public, International Energy Agency, Investors, Ancora, Holdings, Algonquin Power & Utilities, Elliott Investment Management, NRG Energy, Smart, Thomson Locations: Paris, France, BOSTON, Ukraine

☆ Exxon and Chevron investors shoot down climate proposals after a year a record profits
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Investors shot down proposals urging Exxon and Chevron to set more ambitious climate targets. Climate-minded investors blame Big Oil's soaring profits and Republicans' criticism of ESG. "It's incomprehensible why investors are accepting this when they have more to worry about than the profits of Big Oil. Exxon in December said more than 70% of its capital investments in the coming years would flow to fossil-fuel development. "To be fair, we have seen change at Exxon in the last two years.

Persons: Big, Mark van Baal, Critics, Andrew Logan Organizations: Exxon, Chevron, Service, ExxonMobil, BlackRock, Vanguard, Big, Big Oil Locations: Ukraine

Climate investors aren’t expecting a triumphant repeat of what happened two years ago, when Engine No. 1, a San Francisco-based activist hedge fund, stunned the corporate world by landing three of its eco-conscious nominees on Exxon’s board. Mark van Baal, founder of the activist shareholder group Follow This, was more blunt. The hedge fund, he said, was “the biggest disappointment in the fight against climate change.”Engine No. But critics say that green investments are still a tiny percentage of Exxon’s spending, and that the company remains committed to fossil fuels.

Persons: aren’t, DealBook, Vivienne Walt, ”, Mark Kramer, “, Danielle Fugere, Mark van Baal Organizations: Exxon, Legal, General Investment Management, Harvard Business School Locations: San Francisco, Berkeley, Calif, Texas, New Mexico

☆ Exxon, Chevron shareholders soundly reject climate-related petitions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Sabrina Valle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HOUSTON, May 31 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N) shareholders on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected calls for stronger measures to mitigate climate change, dismissing more than a dozen climate-related proposals at their annual meetings. His group, which represents some 9,500 shareholders in oil and gas companies, had requested Exxon set medium-term targets for meeting customer emissions reduction goals that seeks to keep global temperature increase below 1.5° Celsius. That resolution received less than half of the support 11% of vote cast compared with 27% from the group's emission reduction proposal last year. Exxon holders rejected all 12 shareholder proposals, the majority of which dealt with climate-related issues. Chevron investors also rejected proposals on customers' emissions reduction target, creating a board committee on decarbonization risk, and a report on worker and community impact from facility closures and energy transitions.

Persons: Mark van Baal, Darren Woods, Woods, Sabrina Valle, Arathy, Mrinalika Roy, Sourasis Bose, Jon Boyle, Marguerita Choy Organizations: HOUSTON, Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp, Shell PLC, BP PLC, Exxon, Chevron, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Guyana, Houston, Bengaluru

The annual shareholder meetings of Exxon Mobil and Chevron, scheduled for Wednesday, are set to be largely sedate, as they will be held virtually. Despite the drama, however, climate-focused shareholder activists are being forced to rethink their approach, two years after the tiny hedge fund Engine No. 1 won a stunning victory over Exxon, Vivienne Walt writes for DealBook. Activists have failed to win more than 50 percent in many key proxy votes since then. And it comes despite major investors backing shareholder activists’ efforts: Norway’s $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, for instance, has pledged to side with them on climate issues on the ballot at Exxon and Chevron.

☆ Norway's sovereign wealth fund votes against Chevron and Exxonmobil
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —The world’s biggest investor in the stock market wants ExxonMobil and Chevron to do more to tackle the climate crisis. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which holds $1.4 trillion in total assets, announced Friday that it would back calls for the US oil companies to set more aggressive emission reduction targets. It said it would support motions proposed by climate activist group Follow This at the companies’ annual shareholder meetings next Wednesday. ExxonMobil and Chevron (CVX) have urged shareholders to reject them. It holds a 0.86% stake in Chevron and a 1.13% stake in ExxonMobil, according to the latest fund data.

☆ Oil major BP braces itself for shareholder revolt after scaling back its climate targets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Dutch group Follow This, a small activist investor and campaign group with stakes in several Big Oil companies, has tabled a resolution at BP's shareholder meeting. It calls on the energy giant to align its climate targets with the landmark Paris climate accord and commit to absolute carbon emissions cuts by 2030. Those emissions cuts, Follow This says, should include emissions generated by customers' use of their oil and gas, known as Scope 3 emissions. Follow This says it expects BP's annual general meeting to be a "contentious" one, warning investors will be "rightfully concerned" about BP dialing back its climate strategy amid an ever-worsening climate crisis. Proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis have recommended that shareholders of BP vote against the resolution tabled by Follow This.

Companies Bp Plc FollowOSLO, April 22 (Reuters) - Norway's $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, one of the world's largest investors, said on Saturday it will vote against a resolution calling on British oil major BP (BP.L) to adopt tougher greenhouse gas targets. The Norwegian fund, itself built on oil and gas revenue, owned 2.73% of BP's shares worth some $2.8 billion at the end of 2022. BP's board has recommended that shareholders vote against the resolution saying it was "unclear" what it wanted the company to do. Investor advisers ISS and Glass Lewis also recommended BP shareholders oppose the resolution, while Britain's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) asked investors to back it. In February BP rowed back on plans to slash its 2019 oil and gas output levels by 40% by 2030, and now it envisages a 25% cut, angering climate activists.

☆ From black to green: How an oil-and-gas company pivoted to embrace wind energy — and is now raking in billions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Freya Graham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Like Sykes, it made a transition from black to green — and in doing so, it demonstrated it's possible for big energy companies to pivot to clean energy. To limit the influence of climate change, those emissions need to rapidly decrease — which means that big energy companies need to change their operations. A 2022 study found that 51% of the world's biggest publicly listed energy companies had not set out a strategy to reduce their emissions. Shell, for example, says it has about 50 gigawatts of renewable energy in operation, under construction, or in development. "If we could do the energy transition without them, I wouldn't be doing this," van Baal added.

LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - A group of investors with $1.1 trillion in assets under management has joined climate activist group Follow This in asking TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) shareholders to push for more ambitious targets on emissions cuts. "These climate resolutions at Big Oil will show which investors are serious about resolving the climate crisis and which prefer to just talk about it." TotalEnergies has said its emissions will not register a big reduction by 2030 in absolute terms. In 2020, the last time TotalEnergies shareholders voted on a Follow This resolution, the activist received 17% of the votes. TotalEnergies' climate strategy was approved by about 90% of shareholder votes in 2021 and 2022.

☆ BP recommends vote against climate activist resolution at April 27 AGM
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - BP's (BP.L) board recommended on Monday that shareholders vote against a climate activist resolution asking for more emissions cuts by 2030 at its April 27 shareholder meeting. BP called the Follow This resolution "unclear", "simplistic" and "disruptive" and said it encroached on the board's responsibility to set the firm's strategy. As a result, BP reduced its ambitions to cut emissions from fuels sold to customers to 20%-30% by 2030, from 35%-40%. Last year, shareholder support for Follow This' resolution fell to around 15% of BP shareholders from around 21% the previous year. BP said its board did not consider the activist resolution to be in the company's or its shareholders' best interests.

☆ Big Oil made $200 billion in profit last year. Shareholders won big, clean energy missed out
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But the flood of cash has not delivered a commensurate boom in renewable energy investments, despite clear evidence that the world needs to move much faster with efforts to address the climate crisis. The record-setting results mark a dramatic turnaround for a sector that suffered brutal losses and slashed shareholder payouts in 2020, when pandemic lockdowns sharply reduced demand for energy and oil prices collapsed. An aerial view of the BP oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana on August 29, 2019. Tannen Maury/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockJust three years ago, BP unveiled a plan to slash oil and gas production by 40% from 2019 levels by 2030. It is also now aiming to cut carbon emissions from its oil and gas production by 20%-30% by 2030, down from the previous goal of 35%-40%.

As a result, BP reduced its ambitions to cut emissions from fuels sold to customers to 20-30% by 2030, from 35-40%. BP's $4.8 billion fourth-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, its definition of net income, narrowly missed a $5 billion company-provided analyst forecast. The results were impacted by weaker gas trading activity after an "exceptional" third quarter, higher refinery maintenance and lower oil and gas prices. But for the year, BP's $27.6 billion profit exceeded its 2008 record of $26 billion despite a $25 billion writedown of its Russian assets. BP, whose trading operations further boost renewables returns, maintained plans to have 50 gigawatts (GW) of renewable projects under development and 10 GW operating by 2030.

Exxon has yet to set any 2030 Scope 3 target. Shell said it believed its targets are aligned with the U.N. climate targets. We remain committed to constructive engagement with our investors," a Shell spokesperson said in a statement. The group of investors co-filing the resolutions includes Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, Degroof Petercam Asset Management and Achmea Asset Management. Exxon and Chevron have in the past successfully blocked attempts to file climate resolutions with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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