Following the latest CA100+ benchmark and IPCC report it appears that not a single oil major is Paris-aligned, Follow This reports.
Despite net zero emissions by 2050 pledges by some oil majors, no oil major is aligned with 1.5°C on three other crucial indicators: medium- and short-term emissions reduction targets and capital expenditure (indicator 6.1b), signifies the Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark.
Oil majors misuse engagement as an excuse not to set Paris-aligned targets
Oil majors, for example,Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron misuse engagement to claim that most investors support their current strategies, even though these strategies do not decrease absolute emissions by 2030:
- BP claims to have “heard clear support for [BP’s] strategy” during “extensive engagement with investors after the vote”,
- Shell claims “broad indications of support for Shell’s strategy”; in written responses to voting results, required by the UK corporate governance code (attachment),
- ConocoPhillips claims that during engagement “Stockholders overwhelmingly did not express an expectation for ConocoPhillips to set a scope 3 target as set forth in the climate resolution” (proxy statement, page 16), and
- Chevron states “Most stockholders generally did not favor shrinking Chevron’s traditional oil and gas business or shifting the core business to renewables as ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions” (2022 notice of the Chevron Corporation Annual meeting of stockholders, page 35).
As engagement happens behind closed doors, we can never be sure of the results reported by the companies. What is clear is that in 2021, investors increasingly voted in favor of emission reductions; 21% at BP (up from 8.4% in 2019), 30% at Shell (up from 14% in 2020) and 58% at ConocoPhillips and 61% at Chevron.
Therefore, only engagement combined with voting will send a clear and unambiguous signal to the boards of these companies.
Follow This is a group of green shareholders in oil and gas companies. Thanks to the votes of investors for the Follow This Climate Resolutions, Shell, Equinor, BP, Philllips 66, and Chevron reluctantly set ambitions to reduce their product emissions (Scope 3).
The Follow This Climate Resolutions support oil and gas companies to set Paris-consistent reduction targets for all emissions, including Scope 3 (product emissions).
