The Church of England pension fund, a minority shareholder in British oil giant Shell but at odds with the group’s energy transition strategy, will vote against the reappointment of its executives at the May 23 general meeting.
“The oil and gas industry in Europe is at a crossroads” and the sector’s decisions can “make or break our collective efforts to limit global warming,” assured Adam Matthews, the fund’s director of responsible investment, in an op-ed published Tuesday in The Telegraph. “We will vote against Shell’s chairman and directors and the updated transition plan, and for the (activist shareholder organization) Follow This resolution that calls for more ambitious targets,” he announced.
The pension fund executive points to “recent announcements by (Shell’s competitor) BP that it is watering down its climate targets, and Shell’s not-so-subtle hints to the market that (the group) is likely to do something similar. He says he has “lost confidence in the company’s management”. “The lure of short-term profit maximization outweighs the long-term sustainability of these companies and our planet,” Matthews denounces, who believes it will also “directly harm the financial interests of pension funds and other long-term investors.”
According to The Telegraph, the significance of the announcement is largely symbolic, given that the pension fund has only a small stake in Shell. A stake that has additionally melted since 2018, from 6.5 million pounds to 1.2 million. “Shell and the Church of England pension fund have been working together as partners on the energy transition for nearly a decade,” Shell responded in a statement sent to AFP, adding that the group’s strategy “remains unchanged,” with a goal of carbon neutrality “by 2050 or earlier.”
Shell reported first-quarter net profit up 22% year-on-year to $8.7 billion, after achieving the highest annual profit in its history in 2022 at $42.3 billion. BP, Shell’s British competitor, also faced a significant number of shareholders at its annual general meeting at the end of April, who were upset by its decision to slow down its energy transition, but in the end obtained the support of a large majority of them.
