Oil giant Shell braces for shareholder revolt over climate plans

British oil giant Shell‘s annual general meeting Tuesday looks set to be an acrimonious one, with climate-focused investors seeking to ramp up pressure on the energy major after an extraordinary run of record profits.

Follow This, a small Dutch activist investor and campaign group with stakes in several Big Oil companies, has tabled a resolution at Shell’s shareholder meeting.

Climate Resolution 26 calls on Shell to align its climate targets with the landmark Paris Agreement and commit to absolute carbon emissions cuts by 2030. These cuts, Follow This says, should include emissions generated by customers’ use of their oil and gas, known as Scope 3 emissions.

It echoes a 2021 ruling by a Dutch court that Shell should reduce its global carbon emissions by 45% by the end of the decade, which the company has appealed.

For the first time, Dutch pension managers MN and PGGM — both Shell shareholders — have endorsed the resolution. The institutional investors lead engagement with Shell on behalf of the world’s largest climate-focused investor group Climate Action 100+, which represents $68 trillion in assets.

It comes as investors increasingly see a warming planet as a growing risk to their portfolios. The burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal, is the chief driver of the climate crisis.

Meanwhile, the Church of England Pensions Board, Britain’s Local Authorities Pensions Funds Forum, the the U.K.’s National Employment Savings Trust, and shareholder adviser PIRC have said they will either vote against or recommend a vote against the re-appointment of Shell Chairman Andrew Mackenzie.

Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer at the Church of England Pensions Board, reportedly said earlier this month that it had “lost confidence in the direction of the company.”

Shell, which is aiming to become a net-zero emissions business by 2050, has recommended shareholders vote against the motion tabled by Follow This. The company described Climate Resolution 26 as “unclear, generic and would create confusion as to Board and shareholder accountabilities.”

“We strongly disagree with the Follow This resolution and with those organisations which have recommended supporting it, or voting against Board members. There must be an emphasis on changing the use of energy as much as its supply, and this is reflected in our approach,” a spokesperson for Shell said in a statement.

“We will continue to invest in producing the energy the world needs today and for the foreseeable future. All of our investments have to provide a rate of return that our investors demand,” they added.

Proxy advisors Glass Lewis and ISS have both recommended that their clients vote against Resolution 26.

It is unlikely that those planning to vote in favor of the resolution will trigger a broader shareholder revolt or succeed in ousting board members, but Follow This says it…