Credit: WWF UK / Jiri Rezac
ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil latest to be challenged on oil sands risk
As shareholders gather in London this week for BP's annual general meeting, American and British investors are coordinating in a unique effort putting pressure on four major oil multinationals over their controversial investments in the Canadian oil sands. Investors from both sides of the Atlantic have filed resolutions for BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil's annual general meetings this spring which ask the companies to report on the financial, environmental and social risks associated with their oil sands investments.
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FairPensions UK, the California State Teachers Retirement Fund (CalSTRS), and Boston-based Green Century Capital Management (Green Century) are coordinating the shareholders' efforts. "The environmental risks associated with oil sands development come with long-term financial risk for the CalSTRS portfolio," states Jack Ehnes, CEO of the $140BN CalSTRS and lead filer on the resolution at ConocoPhillips. "We support all resolutions requesting greater disclosure on oil sands-related risks and encourage institutional investors to vote YES in support of these proposals." |
"We support all resolutions requesting greater disclosure on oil sands-related risks and encourage institutional investors to vote YES in support of these proposals." ~ Jack Ehnes, CEO CalSTRS |
"Oil sands extraction has significant ecological consequences and companies are increasingly being forced to pay the price for environmental damage," states Emily Stone, Shareholder Advocate for Green Century and lead filer on the resolution at ExxonMobil. "Shareholders must know how companies are preparing for these costs and mitigating future risks."
Louise Rouse, Director of Investor Engagement for FairPensions, states: "The fact that resolutions are pending at four oil majors this AGM season shows that oil sands is a major mobilizing issues for investors around the world, and will be for years to come. The international coordination effort seen in this campaign has been crucial in encouraging investors on both sides of the Atlantic to come on board and vote in favour of the BP and Shell resolutions."
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Shelley Alpern of Trillium Asset Management Corporation, which filed the first shareholder proposal addressing the oil sands in 2008 at ConocoPhillips and continues to be a co-filer, agreed that disclosure is essential to dispelling investors' rising doubts. "Companies' silence on these questions may indicate that they have no ‘Plan B'." She noted that the ConocoPhillips resolution received significant support from shareholders from the start, averaging 30% in 2008 and 2009. |
"Companies' silence on these questions may indicate that they have no ‘Plan B'." ~ Shelley Alpern, Trillium |
"Investors are concerned that many companies seem to be moving ahead without a well-articulated plan to manage the environmental and social risks associated with the oil sands," said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the $8 trillion Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR). "Given the extra-long investment horizons of oil sands projects, it is especially important for companies to invest in solutions to these challenges upfront."
The campaign is attracting mounting international support from NGOs, faith groups, politicians and celebrities, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke. Institutional investors from across the globe associated with the United Nation's Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), such as Boston Common Asset Management, Calvert Asset Management Co., Inc., Co-Operative Asset Management, Ethos Foundation, Unison Staff Pension Scheme, and Walden Asset Management, have expressed their public support for BP's and Shell's oil sands resolutions.
Visit http://www.incr.com/resolutions for additional documents making the business case for each resolution. The oil sands resolutions were among a record 95 climate change related resolutions filed with 82 U.S. and Canadian companies in 2010.