Ceres News — Major Oil Company Investors Concerned About Climate Change

Ceres goals include promoting our transition to sustainability

From a Letter by Andrew Logan, Ceres Organization, Boston, MA, May 26, 2021

In a dramatic shake-up signaling a clear and accelerated transition away from a fossil fuel economy, a majority of shareholders of major oil and gas companies have backed groundbreaking climate-related shareholder proposals.

That all came to a head today as a majority of ExxonMobil shareholders voted to replace at least two of the company’s board of directors with Gregory Goff, former CEO of Andeavor oil refining company, and Kaisa Hietala, former executive vice president of renewable products at Neste.

The proposal, filed by Engine No. 1, called for replacing four board directors with a slate of new climate-competent directors. Climate Action 100+, the world’s largest investor engagement initiative, flagged the vote as worthy of shareholder consideration. Investor signatories to the initiative including California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), and New York State Common Retirement Fund all voted for the proposal.

This is an unprecedented action by investors, putting all companies on notice that climate inaction can cost a board member their job.

Shareholders also voted to support other climate-related proposals at Exxon including a proposal asking the company to report how its climate lobbying aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement and a proposal seeking disclosure of the climate change risks the fossil-fuel dependent company faces.

Meanwhile, at Chevron, 61% of shareholders voted for a proposal calling for the company to follow its European peers and set a target for its product, or scope 3, GHG emissions, underscoring the day of reckoning for both oil majors. The center of power at ExxonMobil and Chevron has truly shifted, and oil and gas companies can no longer afford to ignore outside pressure to act on the climate crisis.

The votes come at the end of an historic proxy season that has seen record votes for climate proposals. Three majority votes at the ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 meetings earlier this month equaled, in a single week, what was then the total number of majority votes on climate proposals in the history of the U.S. oil and gas industry.

While there is still so much work to do to reach a net-zero emissions future, these victories are huge and will go a long way in changing business as usual and transforming our economy.

You can read more here. Thank you for your considerations of this topic.

Andrew Logan, Senior Director for Oil and Gas, Ceres Organization