ExxonMobil investors show record support for climate change resolution.In May, shareholders of ExxonMobil Corp., the world's largest energy company, gave record support to a resolution seeking greater corporate analysis and transparency about the financial risks posed by climate change. The first-year resolution, asking the company to disclose plans for how it will contribute to meeting greenhouse gas greenhouse gas n. Any of the atmospheric gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect. greenhouse gas (GHG GHG Greenhouse Gas GHG Governor's Horse Guard (various locations) ) reduction targets in countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol Kyoto Protocol: see global warming. , received 28.3 percent of shareholder votes, representing 1.5 billion in shares with a market value of about $83.3 billion. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The resolution was filed by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors. Founded in 1973, the organization advocates for corporate social responsibility and files shareholder resolutions and engages in dialogue with corporate management on and backed by several U.S. and European institutional investors, including the California Public Employees Retirement System public pension fund, the London Pensions Fund Authority, and Institutional Shareholder Services, a key investment advisor Investment Advisor 1. A person making investment recommendations in return for a flat fee or percentage of assets managed, known as a commission. 2. For mutual fund companies, it is the individual who has the day-to-day responsibility of investing and monitoring the cash and on proxy voting Proxy voting is the delegation to another member of a voting body of that member's power to vote in his absence. It is essentially synonymous to delegated voting. Proxy voting is commonly used in corporations for voting by members or shareholders, because it allows members issues. With few first-year resolutions making it into double digits Double Digits was a pricing game on the American television game show, The Price Is Right. Played from April 20, 1973 through May 18, 1973's show, it was played for a car and used small prizes. , or even past the quartile Quartile A statistical term describing a division of observations into four defined intervals based upon the values of the data and how they compare to the entire set of observations. Notes: Each quartile contains 25% of the total observations. mark, the vote was a success for shareholder activism. "Today's vote sends a loud and clear message that shareholders want and deserve more action from ExxonMobil on the climate change issue," said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmental groups that helped file the resolution. ExxonMobil has vigorously denied the broad scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels contributes to global climate change. A second resolution, filed by socially responsible investment firm Christian Brothers Investment Services and calling on the company to make available the scientific evidence supporting its controversial position, received 10.3 percent support, up from 8.8 percent in 2004. Investors worry that the company's head-in-the-sand response on climate issues puts long-term shareholder value at risk. They also worry that ExxonMobil is missing out on competitive opportunities. ChevronTexaco, Anadarko Petroleum, Apache, and several other leading U.S. oil and gas companies have recently agreed to a wide range of actions to reduce financial risk and improve their positioning on the climate change issue--including disclosing GHG emissions and setting reduction targets, integrating climate risk and carbon costs into decision making, and boosting investments in alternative energy technologies. Last year, resolutions seeking greater climate-risk disclosure received record-high support of 37 percent at Apache and 27 percent at Marathon Oil Corporation. |
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