Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a lawsuit in a Texas court on Sunday to block a climate proposal from activist investors from coming to a vote during the company’s May shareholder meeting.
This is Exxon’s first attempt to exclude the proposal from shareholders filing a claim in court. The company argues that investors are “driven by an extreme agenda” and that adopting stricter emissions targets would harm its business and share price.
Investors led by Arjuna Capital and a group of activists Follow this They are calling on Exxon and other major oil companies to adopt tougher climate targets.
They want Exxon to set so-called Scope 3 targets for reduce emissions produced by users of their products. Exxon is the only Big Five company oil companies Westerners who do not have goals of this type.
Photo: Reuters
Follow This made similar proposals at various oil company shareholder meetings in 2021 and 2022. Only a minority of shareholders supported them.
Last week, a group of 27 investors, including Follow This, which owns about 5% of Shell, jointly introduced a similar independent climate resolution that will be voted on at the company’s shareholder meeting later this year.
Exxon asked a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to strike the Category 3 proposal from its proxy statement. The application must be ready by April 11, in time for the annual meeting of shareholders, which will take place on May 29.
Exxon reports that Arjuna and Follow this They are pursuing a strategy of “becoming shareholders solely to campaign” for changes “calculated to reduce the company’s current business.”
Follow This said last year that setting a Paris-agreed medium-term target covering Scope 3 was paramount to the company’s long-term interests in the face of climate change.
Reuters
Source: Aristegui Noticias
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
