About the author: Rev. Kirsten Snow Spalding is vice president of the Ceres Investor Network at the sustainability nonprofit Ceres. Ceres is a founding investor network of Climate Action 100+, an investor initiative focused on climate action.
Investors also focused on asking oil and gas companies to disclose assets that have indeterminate lives to better understand the true end-of-life costs the company might incur as those assets retire. One such shareholder proposal received a 16% vote at Exxon. Similar resolutions were filed at Chevron, Imperial Oil, and Marathon Petroleum.
Overall votes were lower this season. Changes in how investors are engaging with companies and the nuances in the language of shareholder proposals can help explain why. One result is significant movement from companies. For example, 79 climate-related proposals were withdrawn this year in return for a commitment by the company. And while many climate-related proposals didn’t achieve a majority, the votes received this year are an important sign of progress for this next generation of more-nuanced resolutions.
Other efforts where investors were dissatisfied with board leadership also yielded favorable results. In June, the Church of England Pensions Board said it planned to vote against the chair and CEO of National Grid for the company’s lack of climate lobbying disclosure. Climate Action 100+ subsequently flagged the vote. National Grid has since committed to issuing a report on its lobbying practices and investors have signaled their intention to vote in favor of management.