Investors join activists to press TotalEnergies on climate targets - Reuters
Investors join activists to press TotalEnergies on climate targets | Reuters
Investors join activists to press TotalEnergies on climate targets
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.
The resolution filed for the company's May 26 annual general meeting follows others that Follow This has filed for coming shareholder meetings at rival energy majors BP (BP.L), Chevron (CVX.N), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Shell (SHEL.L).
"To achieve the goal of (the) Paris (climate deal), the world has to almost halve emissions by 2030, but TotalEnergies has no plan to drive down emissions this decade," Follow This founder Mark van Baal said.
"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."
The investor group co-filing the latest resolution represents 1.5% of TotalEnergies' shares.
Follow This wants the companies to commit to absolute emissions cuts by 2030, rather than intensity-based targets, including Scope 3 emissions from the combustion of the fuels they sell.
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.
TotalEnergies has said its emissions will not register a big reduction by 2030 in absolute terms.
Scientists say the world needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43% from 2019 levels by 2030 to have any hope of meeting the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
BP and Shell have recommended shareholders vote against the Follow This resolutions.
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.
Follow This resolutions at other oil majors last year received between 15% and 33% of the votes.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”