Christian Brothers Investment Services Leads Shareholder Campaign on Global Warming.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 29, 2003

Catholic Institutional Investment Manager Says ExxonMobil Vote Shows Shareholders Link Environmental Risks to Financial Performance

Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS), a leading investment management firm serving the Catholic institutional market, helped lead a coalition of ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) shareowners who presented a resolution at ExxonMobil's annual meeting yesterday in Irving, Texas, demanding that the oil giant take positive steps to reduce risks associated with global warming. The shareholder resolution, calling on the company to issue a report explaining how it intends to respond to rising regulatory, competitive and public pressure to develop renewable energy sources, received 21% of the preliminary vote total at yesterday's shareholder meeting.

The resolution, filed with Campaign ExxonMobil and a coalition of religious investors associated with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) - including the Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order, the resolution's primary filer, as well as the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, NJ - was one of three global warming resolutions filed at the meeting. The resolution pointed out that ExxonMobil's major competitors (ChevronTexaco, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total Elf Fina) all have investments in renewable energy while Exxon-Mobil by its own admission has virtually none. The resolution also cited press reports that Exxon-Mobil's refusal to acknowledge that carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming was creating a PR backlash and serious reputation damage to the world's largest oil company.

"The ExxonMobil shareholder vote is a clear signal to company management that shareholders see a clear linkage between environmental issues and financial issues even if management does not," says Francis Coleman, Executive Vice President and Director of Socially Responsible Investing at CBIS. "Energy companies need to take the lead in developing alternative, renewable energy sources that curb global warming. ExxonMobil's stubborn refusal to do so threatens long-term damage to the company's shareholders as well as to the environment."

The climate-related resolutions filed with ExxonMobil received a major boost recently when one of the nation's most influential institutional shareholder evaluation services, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), released a key analysis supporting the shareholder challenges to ExxonMobil's management. In recommending a "For" vote on the climate change resolutions, ISS noted that, "as the uncertainty surrounding climate change and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions continues to be a significant concern for investors and corporations, we believe that the report on economic risks and benefits will help shareholders better assess such financial risk."

In addition, while the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), a leading source of impartial, independent research on corporate responsibility issues, does not issue recommendations on shareholder voting issues, its analysis noted that, "shareholders that believe management should be disclosing more information on how the company will mitigate the risks of climate change and broaden its energy development horizons will be inclined to vote for the resolution."

CBIS hailed the shareholder votes following yesterday's annual meeting. "Investors are increasingly recognizing that ExxonMobil faces real risks associated with climate change," said Mr. Coleman. "This has become a crucial financial reporting issue for the company and its investors because the oil sector, given its major contribution to carbon emissions, has potentially catastrophic exposure to climate change risk."

The ExxonMobil resolution capped a proxy season where CBIS and other institutional investors have been extremely active on the global warming issue, particularly in those sectors - oil, energy, autos - contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and therefore particularly vulnerable to climate change risk. In April, a shareholder resolution filed by CBIS and the State of Connecticut Pension Plan calling on American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), the nation's largest utility, to take action to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming, received 26.9 percent of the vote at the company's annual meeting. CBIS and other institutional investors are also engaged in a dialogue with Unocal (NYSE: UCL) on global warming issues, proposing steps that the company can take to reduce its exposure to climate change risk.

After reaching an agreement with Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), CBIS and its ICCR partners withdrew a shareholder resolution earlier this proxy season that had asked the company to adopt a policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its automobiles. The Ford resolution challenged the company to move forward on fuel economy through investments in hybrid technologies and other innovations in fuel efficiency. Ford had earlier pledged to be a leader in the effort to mitigate the causes of climate change by marketing more fuel efficient cars and trucks, but this past year the company joined an industry coalition that successfully prevented Congress from raising fuel economy standards. CBIS therefore joined other concerned investors in filing a shareholder resolution intended to highlight the disconnect between the company's stated goals and its actions.

The Ford resolution was withdrawn when the company agreed to adopt a more responsible approach to climate change, including a renewed focus on its dialogue with shareholder groups on ways to reduce carbon emissions from its products. As a unique feature of the agreement, Ford actually published the climate change resolution in its proxy booklet, agreeing to its general principles but acknowledging that differences remain on specifics and implementation.

"All of these shareholder initiatives indicate that a growing segment of investors is no longer content to sit by while companies fail to address climate change and the significant risks it poses to shareholder value," says CBIS' Coleman. "Inaction and opposition to emissions control efforts could expose companies to reputation and brand damage as well as regulatory and litigation risk in the event of government-mandated emissions caps or other regulatory intervention, which most observers view as inevitable."

"Shareholders are taking their rights and responsibilities more seriously in this post-Enron environment," concludes Mr. Coleman. "CBIS has always taken an active stance on environmental issues. Now we find that other institutional investors are as well, because they see the clear connection between environmental risk and financial risk, and want to protect their own investment portfolios while protecting the environment as well."

Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) manages approximately $3 billion for Catholic organizations seeking to combine faith and finance through the responsible stewardship of Catholic assets. CBIS' combination of premier institutional asset managers, diversified product offerings, and careful risk-control strategies constitutes a unique investment approach for Catholic institutions and their fiduciaries. CBIS strives to integrate faith-based values into the investment process through a disciplined approach to socially responsible investing that includes principled purchasing (stock screens), active ownership strategies (proxy voting, dialogues, and shareholder resolutions) and community investment. The firm contributes a portion of all profits to support the Church's educational and social ministry.

Additional information about CBIS may be obtained by calling [phone], or by visiting the firm's web site (www.cbisonline.com).