SUPPORTING STATEMENT
The oil and gas industry can make or break
the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Therefore, shareholders support oil and gas
companies to change course; to align their
targets with the goal of the Paris Climate
Agreement and invest accordingly in the energy
transition to a net-zero-emission energy system.
FIDUCIARY DUTY
We, the shareholders, understand this support
to be part of our fiduciary duty to protect all
assets in the global economy from devastating
climate change.
A growing international consensus has emerged
among financial institutions that climate-related
risks are a source of financial risk, and therefore
achieving the goal of Paris is essential to risk
management and responsible stewardship
of the economy.
SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION AND SUPPORTING STATEMENT
AMBITIONS AND TARGETS
We, the shareholders, therefore welcomed
the company's climate ambitions and targets.
We especially welcomed you crossing the
Rubicon on Scope 3 by including the GHG
emissions of the use of your energy products
(Scope 3). Reducing absolute emissions from the
use of energy products is essential to achieving
the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.
We thank the shareholders that supported
this crucial step by voting for climate targets
resolutions in previous years.
Shareholders support you to advance these
ambitions to Paris-consistent short-, medium-,
and longterm emissions reduction targets and
invest accordingly.
INCREASING NUMBERS OF
INVESTORS INSISTS ON TARGETS
Backing from investors that insist on Parisconsistent targets for all emissions continues to
gain momentum; in 2020, an unprecedented
number of shareholders voted for climate
targets resolutions.
At the annual general meetings of Equinor, Shell,
and Total, the companies' boards rejected the
Follow This climate targets resolution by claiming
their non-committal climate ambitions were
sufficient. In each case, a significant minority
of shareholders voted for the Follow This climate
targets resolution. At Shell, this minority rose from
5.5% in 2018 to 14.4% in 2020; at Equinor, as a
share of non-government votes, from 12% in 2019
to 27% in 2020; and the very first climate targets
resolution filed at Total received 17% of all
shareholder votes in 2020.
Evidently, a growing group of investors across
the energy sector unites behind visible and
unambiguous support for Paris-consistent
targets for all emissions.
ABSOLUTE EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS
The goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is to
limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C above
preindustrial levels, to aim for a global net-zeroemission energy system, and to pursue efforts
to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C.
To reach the goal of the Paris Climate
Agreement, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) special report Global
Warming of 1.5 degrees C (2018) suggests that global
absolute net energyrelated emissions should be
reduced substantially by 2030 and be close to
net zero by 2050, compared to 2010 levels
(page 119, table 2.4).
To allow maximum flexibility, the company may
use whatever metric they deem best suited to set
Paris-consistent emissions reductions targets, for
example a relative GHG intensity metric (GHG
emissions per unit of energy). Whatever metric is
chosen (relative or absolute), the targets must be
proven to lead to absolute emissions reductions
compliant with the Paris Climate Agreement.
We believe that the company could lead and
thrive in the energy transition. We therefore
encourage you to set targets that are
inspirational for society, employees, shareholders,
and the energy sector, allowing the company
to meet an increasing demand for energy while
reducing GHG emissions to levels consistent
with the global intergovernmental consensus
specified by the Paris Climate Agreement.