(London) Shell won the support of a large majority of shareholders at its annual general meeting on Tuesday, despite a chaotic start to the session and many doubts expressed about the energy transition of the British oil giant.
The accounts, the remuneration of the directors and of the board of directors and their retention in office were adopted almost unanimously.
The group’s energy transition plan, although widely adopted, received only 80% of votes in favor, leading the group to say in a press release that this result required “consulting shareholders to understand the reasons”. .
The Church of England pension fund, a minority shareholder in Shell but in disagreement with its energy transition strategy, had warned that it would vote against the renewal of the leaders.
Managing Director Wael Sawan said he was “satisfied that the majority of our investors continue to support our strategy to become a carbon neutral energy company by 2050”.
The NGO Reclaim Finance, affiliated with the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth, regrets that the shareholders validated the company’s climate strategy and “rejected the resolution of Follow This and an investor group calling on the oil giant to align its indirect (Scope 3) greenhouse gas emissions with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.”
“Shareholders are responding to the lure of dividends, not the calls of scientists. […] We can only hope for a jump or better results at the general meeting of TotalEnergies on Friday,” commented Lucie Pinson, founder and director of Reclaim Finance.
She laments that Shell “remains the world’s 7th largest oil and gas producer and continues to develop new oil projects”.
The start of the GA was eventful, with dozens of pro-environment protesters interrupting leaders’ introductory speeches or chanting “Hit the road, Jack” replacing the lyrics with “Go to hell, Shell” , Shell).
Security guards intervened to prevent a protester, who was heading towards the dais where the leaders of the group were speaking, from reaching President Andrew Mackenzie.
Dozens of protesters were also dragged by security guards from the hall where the meeting was being held, with one appearing to pass out, the other shouting that the three men dragging her out were hurting her, the agency reports. PA.
Protesters from pro-environment NGOs including Greenpeace, Tipping Point and Neon also demonstrated outside the GA site, which started an hour late due to the disruption.
BP, at its general meeting at the end of April, faced a notable share of shareholders remonstrated with its decision to slow down its energy transition, but had finally obtained the support of a large majority of them.
Those of Barclays and HSBC had also been disrupted, among others, because these banks are accused by many environmental organizations of over-financing the extraction of polluting hydrocarbons.
Shell posted first-quarter profit up 22% year-on-year to $8.7 billion, after posting the highest annual profit in its history in 2022, at $42.3 billion.
Combined, BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies posted more than $40 billion in profits this quarter.