Follow This, a group of climate activists and more than 20 investors have filed joint resolutions against BP and Shell.
According to the resolutions, oil and gas companies are required to reveal their strategies in the event that global demand for core products decreases. The group released the information on Wednesday.
According to a Reuters article, the new resolutions reflect the strategic change in focus of the Dutch activist organization.
The group’s announcement in April of a major setback, the suspension its highly-publicized campaign that lasted for nearly ten years.
Oil and Gas Companies should adopt a more aggressive strategy
This long-running campaign’s primary goal was to encourage major oil and gas companies around the world to adopt more aggressive emission reduction targets.
This suspension was primarily due to a lack of “investor appetite”, which means that shareholders did not support the group’s proposals.
This new set of resolutions represents an important change to the methodology and goals of the group.
The group decided to pursue a new, perhaps complementary avenue in order to reach its overall goal, which is to accelerate the energy transformation and tackle climate change.
The new strategy involves a reevaluation, which goes beyond the direct demand for emission reductions to include issues such as corporate governance, disclosure of financial risks related to climate changes, and pace of switching to renewable sources of energy.
After the disappointing failure of the most recent investor campaign, the core concept remains environmental activism.
Follow This began submitting climate resolutions to shareholder meetings in 2016. The following years saw a notable increase in support.
The votes were 80% at Phillips 66 and 60% at Chevron. Exxon-Shell received approximately one third of the vote, while BP got 20%.
The group said it will focus on pressing BP and Shell for their long-term strategy, especially how they intend to operate in scenarios when the demand of oil and gas decreases.
Companies retract their commitments to renewable energy
The two companies have, along with other energy producers, reduced their investment in renewables as they focus on oil and natural gas.
The resolutions ask BP and Shell to produce comprehensive reports that span at least a ten-year period.
The reports should include capital spending, production strategies and projected free cash flows under different scenarios, such as those modelled by the International Energy Agency.
Shell confirmed to a Shell spokesperson that the Board would evaluate the resolution as it met the requirements of the procedure.
In the notice of the Annual General Meeting, which will take place in mid-May, the Board’s recommendations to the shareholders will be contained.
The co-filing investors of the resolutions manage assets worth approximately 1,5 trillion Euros ($1,75 trillion).
Achmea Investment Management and Ethos Foundation are among the investors.
The IEA, or International Energy Agency (IEA), projected in November that the oil demand will reach its peak around 2030. The forecast was based on an scenario which included policies that were proposed but had not been finalised.
The IEA revised its outlook based not on climate ambitions but rather current government policies.
The agency has revised its previous forecasts and now predicts that the global demand for gas and oil could continue to grow until 2050.
As new information becomes available, this post Climate activists Press BP and Shell on Post-peak Oil Finance Strategy Shift 2026 might be updated.
