Oil majors offside with investors worth $10trn

Climate change has landed oil majors offside with a number of investors representing $10.4trn worth of assets ahead of their annual general meetings (AGMs) over the next couple of weeks.

Oil majors offside with investors worth $10trn
2 minutes

Schroders, Old Mutual Global Investors, Newton Investment Management, M&G Investments and Aberdeen Standard Investments are among the 60 assets managers and institutional investors threatening to vote again companies in the sector, announced in a letter in the Financial Times this morning.

Shell was specifically named in the letter and will be among the first in the firing line at its AGM next week, where a shareholder resolution will call for the company to set carbon emissions targets.

Shell’s AGM takes place in The Hague on 22 May with a follow-up presentation in London two days later. BP’s AGM takes place on 21 May in Manchester.

Investors expect the oil and gas industry to front up about how the investments they make are compatible with a pathway toward the Paris goal.

Newton said the letter published in the Financial Times sent a clear message to the oil and gas industry, whose products account for 50 per cent of global carbon emissions.

“Investors are embracing their responsibility for supporting the Paris agreement. It is time for the entire oil and gas industry to do the same,” the asset manager said in a statement.

Signees of the Financial Times letter were:

  • Aberdeen Standard Investments
  • ACTIAM
  • Aegon NV
  • Amundi Asset Management
  • AP7
  • APG Asset Management
  • ASR Nederland NV
  • Aviva Investors
  • Axa Investment Managers
  • BMO Global Asset Management
  • BNP Paribas Asset Management
  • Brunel Pension Partnership Ltd
  • CCLA
  • Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church
  • Church in Wales
  • Church of Scotland Investors Trust
  • Ecofi Investissements (Credit Cooperatif Group)
  • Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company
  • Epworth Investment Management Limited
  • ERAFP
  • Ethos Foundation
  • Fidelity International
  • Handelsbanken Asset Managment
  • Hermes Equity Ownership Services
  • HSBC Global Asset Management Ltd.
  • Investec Asset Management
  • Kames Capital
  • Kempen Capital Management
  • Legal and General Investment Management
  • LGPS Central Limited Local Government Super (Australia)
  • M&G Investments
  • Merseyside Pension Fund
  • Miller/Howard Investments
  • Mirova MN
  • MP Investment Management
  • NEST
  • Newton Investment Management
  • NN Investment Partners
  • OFI ASSET MANAGEMENT
  • Old Mutual Global Investors
  • Old Mutual Investment Group
  • Ostrum Asset Management
  • P+ (DIP/JOEP)
  • Pædagogernes Pension
  • PGGM
  • PKA
  • Rabobank Pension Fund
  • Robeco RobecoSAM
  • Sarasin & Partners LLP
  • Schroders
  • SKY Harbor Capital Management, LLC
  • Southward Council
  • Storebrand Asset Management
  • Trillium Asset Management
  • Unigestion
  • United Reformed Church Ministers’ Pension Trust
  • USS

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