New York (AFP) - Investors of ExxonMobil and Chevron vote at annual shareholder meetings Wednesday on whether the two oil giants should do more to address climate change following a historic global climate agreement.
Shareholder votes in Dallas, Texas, near ExxonMobil headquarters, and at Chevron's San Ramon, California, headquarters will be closely watched in light of the December agreement reached in Paris, in which nearly 200 governments pledged measures to cap global warming.
Environmentalists believe climate change may be at a tipping point for shareholders of Big Oil, who have enjoyed a reliable stream of dividend checks as the oil giants have racked up profits.
"We have a breakthrough this year," said Anne Simpson, director of investment at Calpers, the public employees retirement system for the state of California.
"We really have to step up and make sure that companies are in sync. They have to stop looking backward."
Under a proposal by New York state's retirement fund, ExxonMobil and Chevron would be directed to publish the results of an annual climate "stress test" of how changing public policies affect their assets and long-term business prospects.
A second proposal stipulates that the two oil companies should enact policies to ensure that global temperatures do not rise more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial level, as agreed in the Paris pact.
Environmentalists have called on the oil giants to champion renewable energy and stop producing fossil fuels, arguing in part that the long-term viability of oil will be undermined by climate mitigation policies.
Addressing climate change is "a real issue of financial risk," said Edward Mason, head of responsible investments at the Church of England.
"We hope that this vote will be the moment when shareholders give an unequivocal signal that, following the Paris agreement, the time for climate risk reporting has arrived."
