In the past, environmental activist investors were limited to the odd shareholder proposal, inevitably rebuffed by the boards and management teams. On Wednesday by contrast, shareholders ousted two Exxon Mobil directors seen as insufficiently attuned to the threat of climate change, while Chevron shareholders voted for a proposal to compel the company to reduce pollution by its customers.
Provided by Dow Jones
By Christopher M. Matthews For years, Exxon Mobil Corp. didn t have to pay much attention to investors because of its gargantuan profits. Yet on a Friday night in January, Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods was defending the company during a video call to an investor owning about 0.02% of the oil giant s stock. Tech investor Chris James s Engine No. 1 had launched an activist campaign against Exxon in December, calling the company a fossil-fuel dinosaur that lacked a coherent plan for surviving a global transition to cleaner energy sources. On the call, Charlie Penner, a hedge-fund veteran helping lead the Engine No. 1 campaign, pressed Mr. Woods to commit to steering Exxon to carbon neutrality, effectively bringing its emissions to zero both from the company and its products by 2050.
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An unprecedented fight over who should sit on the board of Exxon Mobil Corp. is turning into a referendum on CEO Darren Woods.
(Bloomberg) An unprecedented fight over who should sit on the board of Exxon Mobil Corp. is turning into a referendum on Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods as a decades-long struggle by climate campaigners comes to a head.
Activist investor Engine No. 1 LLC wants to replace one-third of Exxon’s board in an effort to force the Western world’s largest oil explorer to embrace a transition away from fossil fuels and end a decade of what it calls “value destruction.” Shareholders are set to gather virtually for their annual meeting on May 26.