BP’s board will face conflicting demands from shareholders at today’s AGM with some calling for a faster move away from the green agenda and others objecting to its recent return to fossil fuel growth.
The company recently announced it was pulling back from the net zero transition in response to investor concern at the erosion in the company’s profits and value. Its share price has lagged behind its rivals.
However, environmental pressures remain and a group of 48 institutional investors have criticised the firm for not offering a direct vote on the revised strategy.
Chairman Helge Lund will face opposition to his re-election to the board having just announced he will step down in “due course”.
In 2020 BP announced a plan to cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030 and invest heavily in renewables. It now wants to increase its production to between 2.3 million and 2.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2030.
The revised plan involved a $10bn (£7.6bn) annual increase in oil and gas investment, and a reduction of $5bn a year in planned investment into biogas, biofuels and electric vehicle charging.
Tarek Bouhouch, from activist group Follow This, accused the company of being in “panic-mode” after ditching its five-year-old strategy in a couple of weeks.
He said a vote against the reappointment of Mr Lund would have a “sole ESG purpose” and send a “strong signal”.
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has outlined its plans to vote against members of the board.
In its statement, it said it would vote against the re-election of four of BP’s 12 directors, including: Helge Lund; Melody Meyer, chair of the sustainability committee; Tushar Morzaria, interim chair of the remuneration committee; and Dame Amanda Blanc, a senior independent director.
It will also vote against the approval of the company’s annual report and its remuneration report.
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership also indicated that it would vote against the chairs of other oil and gas companies that fail to meet the first five indicators of the Climate Action 100+ net zero benchmark, which includes short, medium, and long-term emission reduction targets, and decarbonisation strategies.
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