'Shell faces shareholder rebellion over climate activist resolution', 16 January 2024

Shell’s board faces a shareholder rebellion as large investors including the UK’s biggest pension scheme prepare to back a climate activist resolution.

Twenty-seven investors have agreed to back a resolution filed by the Dutch shareholder activists at Follow This that calls for the oil company to align its medium-term emissions reduction targets with the 2015 Paris agreement.

The investor coalition together owns about 5% of Shell’s shares and includes the government-backed National Employment Savings Trust (Nest), which manages the pensions of almost a quarter of the UK’s workers.

The resolution has also won the backing of the French asset management firm Amundi, which holds almost €2tn (£1.7tn) in assets, as well as Candriam, Scottish Widows, and Rathbones Group...

Shareholders will be asked to vote on the resolution at the £160bn company’s annual general meeting in May. The resolution has already received the backing of investors who together hold about €4tn in assets under management, and support is expected to grow over the months before Shell’s annual general meeting, according to Mark van Baal, the founder of Follow This...

A Shell spokesperson said: “The 2024 resolution from Follow This is broadly unchanged from their 2023 submission, which was rejected by shareholders (as its variations have been every year since first being submitted in 2016).

“Shell’s board has previously advised shareholders that the Follow This resolution was unrealistic and simplistic, that it would have no impact on mitigating climate change, have negative consequences for our customers, and was against the interests of the company and our shareholders.”