Climate activist shareholder group pushes BP, Shell on plans for declining oil demand
The group Follow This, a climate activist shareholder group, and'more than '20 other investors filed resolutions on Wednesday calling on BP to explain how it will generate value if the global demand for gas and oil declines. The resolutions are a strategic change on the part the Dutch activist group. In April, it announced that it had to suspend its campaign to get major oil and gas companies to commit to emission?cuts due to lack of investor interest.
Follow This filed climate resolutions during shareholder meetings starting in 2016. In the following years, it received a peak of shareholder votes - 80% for Phillips 66 and 60% for Chevron. A third was given to Exxon & Shell, and a fifth at BP.
The group stated that it will focus on demanding that BP & Shell reveal longer-term strategies in scenarios of declining oil & gas demand.
Together with other producers, both companies have reduced their renewable energy commitments in order to concentrate investment on oil and natural gas projects.
The resolutions ask BP and Shell to publish reports detailing capital expenditures, production plans, free cash flow forecasts, under declining demand scenarios.
Achmea Investment Management, Ethos Foundation and a number European local pension funds are among the co-filing investors. They manage assets worth about 1,5 trillion euros ($1.75 trillion). The IEA stated in November that it expects oil demand to 'peak' around 2030. This is based on a scenario which takes into account policies that are being proposed but not necessarily adopted.
The IEA, however, predicted that the global oil and natural gas demand would grow up to 2050 under a scenario based on current government policies, excluding any aspirations for climate goals. This was a departure from earlier expectations.
(source: Reuters)
