Follow This ditches 2030 deadline ahead of Shell AGM

Dutch campaign group Follow This will bring forward a resolution calling on Shell to align its medium-term Scope 3 emissions with the Paris Agreement at this year's Shell AGM, Net Zero Investor can reveal. The resolution has been co-filed by a record number of investors but has abandoned hard interim targets. 

Scaled back

Compared to last year, the Follow This resolution has been scaled back, it no longer sets a hard date on interim targets for the Paris alignment of Scope 3 emissions or demands “large scale reductions of absolute emissions by 2030", as it did last year.

Instead, investors are  now putting forward an advisory, rather than a binding resolution, meaning that in the event the vote gained a majority, Shell was not required to take a specific action.

Investors are advising Shell to align its medium-term Scope 3 emissions reductions targets with the aims set out in the Paris Agreement.

“The strategy for achieving these targets is entirely up to the board,” Follow This said.

Last year, the Follow This Shell resolution had been criticised by Shell's board as well as some major asset managers for being overly “prescriptive". The world’s largest asset managers including BlackRock, which is a major shareholder in Shell, did not back it.

Over the last two years, shareholder backing for the Follow This resolution has hovered at around 20%, which was enough to force the Shell board to issue a response, but it has not yet forced the oil giant into ramping up its climate ambitions.

Shell claims that its current climate strategy is already Paris aligned but this has not yet been verified by any third party as campaign groups like Follow This alongside Shell's shareholders point out. 

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€4trn coalition

This year, Follow This appears to focus on maximising its network of support well in advance of the crucial vote. A coalition of 27 institutional investors representing more than €4trn in assets under management are co-filing the resolution.

The alliance includes major asset owners such as Swedish pension funds AP3 and AP4, alongside UK investors such as DC fund Nest, the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and Local Government Pension Scheme pools Brunel and London CIV. It has also received the backing of Swiss’ Ethos Foundation and Emmi Vorsorgestiftung.

On the asset manager side, Amundi, Scottish Widows, Candriam, Rathbones, Groupana, Edmond de Rothschild, Degroof Petercam and Mandarine Gestion have come out in support already.

“This escalation of 27 leading investors puts the call for emissions reductions by energy companies front and center for all institutional investors,” said Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This who added that he expects this year’s resolution to receive a wider investor backing.

Fredric Nyström, head of sustainability and governance at Swedish pension fund AP3 which is co-filing the resolution, set out the reasons for his support during the latest Net Zero with Mona podcast.

“We see a big need for a push on that company [Shell] to be more proactive on climate and to have a much more ambitious climate strategy,” Nyström said.

When questioned if he had an escalation strategy if the resolution did not pass, Nyström said he did not want to speculate but added that Shell is currently in the process of reviewing its climate strategy and will announce its new strategy this summer. “We believe now is a good time to raise this question, bring it to the company but also bring it out to the public. We are very clear to the company what we expect and hopefully what the majority of investors expect.”

But he also acknowledged that Scope 3 emissions targets and the reduction of absolute emissions were potential sticking points.

A key question going forward will be whether US asset management giants such as BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street  or indeed UK firms such as Legal & General Investment Management or Schroders will express their support. 

BlackRock has previously stated that it is not against backing activist shareholder resolutions in principle but had merely objected to the resolution being “prescriptive". By phrasing the resolution as open as possible, the ball is now in the court of the asset managers.

Amid growing discontent, a number of asset owners, including AP7, The Church Commissioners for England and the Wiltshire Pension Fund, which is part of Brunel, announced their decision to divest from Shell last year.

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