Shell Gets Some Breathing Room on Climate Targets From Activist Investors
08 April 2019 - 11:38AM
Dow Jones News
By Oliver Griffin
Follow This, a Netherlands-based group of investors, said it
will withdraw its climate resolution from Royal Dutch Shell PLC's
annual general meeting this year.
The group of some 4,600 shareholders, which urges oil companies
to set and publish targets aligned with the 2015 Paris climate
accord, said in a statement Sunday it will withdraw its climate
resolution from the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company's AGM.
This is to give Shell more time to align its emissions targets
with the 2015 agreement, the group said.
The decision follows discussion with six of Shell's top-10 Dutch
investors, including Aegon, NN Investment Partners and Van Lanschot
Kempen.
Follow This member Mark van Baal said it was due to support for
the group's climate resolutions by these six companies that Shell
had developed its "industry-leading" goals.
"Our mission is to have the entire oil and gas industry, which
can make or break the Paris Climate Agreement, commit concretely to
Paris and actually begin to invest in a sustainable energy supply,"
he said.
Follow This said its climate resolutions, which call for oil
companies to align their long-term targets with the Paris agreement
regarding greenhouse-gas emissions, remain on the agendas of the
AGMs of Equinor ASA, BP PLC and Chevron Corp.
Shell is regarded as industry leading by Follow This in part
because it includes so-called Scope 3 emissions in its greenhouse
gas reduction targets. These are emissions generated by the fuels
burned by Shell's customers all over the world.
"Oil and gas companies had previously always taken the position
that the emissions of their products fell outside the domain of
their own responsibility," Mr. van Baal said.
In March, Shell said it aims to cut its net carbon footprint by
up to 3% by 2021, compared with 2016, as it works toward meeting
its goal of halving its greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
Last year, the company said it would provide three- to five-year
targets beginning in 2020 to reduce its net carbon footprint on an
annual basis. The company said it plans to incorporate the targets
into a revised remuneration policy, which will be subject to a
shareholder vote in 2020.
Follow This said that while the group said it is withdrawing its
resolution from Shell's AGM, it pledged to keep up the pressure on
emissions targets.
Mr. van Baal said: "Shell hasn't heard the last from us. We want
Shell's investments to be aligned with Paris."
-- Write to Oliver Griffin at oliver.griffin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 07, 2019 21:23 ET (01:23 GMT)
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