HSBC Asset Management was the only large British investor voting for change across all oil majors this proxy season, while their peers voted against it, the Follow This group told Net Zero Investor.
When compared to 2022, most UK investors withdrew their climate demands from US oil majors this year.
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Abrdn, and Janus Henderson released ExxonMobil and Chevron from climate action by voting against climate resolutions in 2023, after having voted for the same resolutions a year earlier.
Also, LGIM voted against Shell’s in-house Say on Climate resolution.
Follow This, a group of green shareholders in a range of big oil companies which works to drive down emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement at the energy giants, called HSBC "the only true steward of the global economy."
Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This, stressed that HSBC's "peers enable most oil majors to continue to cause climate breakdown.”
He pointed out that most investors had chosen to sacrifice climate action in favour of “short-term profits”, which have rocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
“This is a false dilemma: shareholders can enjoy dividends from oil and gas while oil majors invest these profits in renewables to drive down emissions at the same time," Van Baal noted.
"Taking short-term fossil fuel profits and addressing long-term climate risks are not mutually exclusive.”
Shell, BP, Total, Exxon, and Chevron are using votes against the Follow This climate resolutions "to justify postponing emissions cuts," Van Baal continued, pointing out this is in conflict with the goal of Paris to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
According to the UN, global emissions, mostly CO2 from burning coal, oil, and gas, must fall by around 45% by 2030 to reach that goal.
