Chief executive Wael Sawan said he’s “very pleased” with the result
Bloomberg News
“I’m very pleased with what we’ve got” in support from investors, Shell chief executive Wael Sawan said on the sidelines of the meeting in London. “And I’m pleased that we have seen the Follow This resolution, get an even lower share of the votes compared to previous years.”
The vote is a setback for Follow This, which has filed climate resolutions at eight of the last nine Shell annual meetings, reaching peak support of 30 per cent in 2021. The group had achieved a small coup this year with the backing of shareholders such as Scottish Widows Ltd., Candriam and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management.
They want to see strict emissions targets to keep global warming in check as outlined by the 2015 Paris accord. However, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Europe’s subsequent energy crisis, concerns about security of supply have increasingly competed with climate change for investors’ attention.
Shell last updated its energy transition in March, watering down some of its targets. The London-based major now aims to reduce its net carbon intensity by 15 per cent to 20 per cent by 2030, compared with a previous target of 20 per cent. It also dropped its goal of a 45 per cent reduction by 2035 citing “uncertainty in the pace of change in the energy transition.” Those targets, which were measured against a baseline of emissions in 2016, received the backing of almost 89 per cent of shareholders when they were last put up for a vote in 2021.
The start of Shell’s meeting was briefly delayed by climate protestors, who started chanting and singing when chairman Andrew MacKenzie began to speak. More than a dozen security guards formed a shield in front of Shell’s board, before the chairman gave them the green light to start to ejecting protesters.
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