Twenty-seven major investors, who own around 5% of Shell’s stock have escalated pressure on Shell to take climate action. The shareholder resolution requests Shell to align its medium-term emissions reduction targets with the Paris Climate Agreement.
The shareholders, who manage more than €3.9 trillion in assets, co-filed the climate resolution with the green shareholder group Follow This.
“This extraordinary step shows how dedicated these investors are to tackling the climate crisis at its source,” says Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This said in a release. “This escalation of 27 leading investors puts the call for emissions reductions by energy companies front and center for all institutional investors.”
The group of 27 co-filing investors from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK, the USA, Sweden, and Switzerland are (Assets Under Management (AUM) between brackets)
Amundi (€1,973 billion)
Scottish Widows (€200 billion)
Candriam (€140 billion)
Rathbones Group (€100 billion)
Groupama AM (€95 billion)
Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM) (€71 billion)
Degroof Petercam Asset Management (DPAM) (€51 billion)
Brunel Pension Partnership (€44 billion)
AP3 (€44 billion)
AP4 (€43 billion)
NEST (€40 billion)
Pension Protection Fund (€38 billion)
Greater Manchester Pension Fund (€37 billion)
London CIV (€16 billion)
Pro BTP Finance (€13 billion)
Mandarine Gestion (€4 billion)
Ethos Foundation (€4 billion assets under advice)
Emmi-Vorsargestiftung (€1 billion)
Ethos Foundation also represents five of its pension fund members.
Four more investors may make public announcements later.
Because some investors co-filed with a portion of their shares, the total number of shares in the filing documents was 114 million shares (3.4%).
Diandra Soobiah, Head of Responsible Investment at NEST: “We urge Shell to set a credible scope 3 absolute emissions target. This would demonstrate leadership, show Shell is serious about transitioning its business, and play a role in generating real-world change.” AP4: “We are realizing the need for fossil fuel in the short-term horizon and we support the idea of integrated energy companies transitioning their business models.”
A statement by the Pension Protection Fund noted: “By co-filing the Follow This resolution, we want to send a clear message to the Shell board on the importance of setting and achieving Paris-aligned reduction targets. Shell has a real opportunity to drive meaningful change in society, and we want to work together to help reduce the overall global emissions by almost half this decade.”
“We expect votes to increase as more investors follow their leading peers by voting for change at Shell, which is the bare minimum they can do,” says Van Baal. “Large shareholders hold the key to tackling the climate crisis with their votes at shareholders’ meetings. Shell will only change if more shareholders vote for change. The resolution is designed to give Shell a shareholder mandate to drive the energy transition.”
Shareholders support Shell, by an advisory vote, to align its medium-term emissions reduction targets covering the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the use of its energy products (Scope 3) with the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement: to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.
