Investors and Courts Send Powerful Wake-Up Call to Oil Giants Exxon, Chevron, and Shell

Today, at ExxonMobil’s annual general meeting, shareholders voted for the election of at least two new members on Exxon’s board of directors, a powerful rebuke to the company’s long-running failure to act on the climate crisis and put forward a sustainable business plan. Meanwhile, more than 60% of shareholders at Chevron voted to pass an activist-led resolution demanding the company set targets to slash emissions of its energy products. Separately today, a Dutch court ruled that Shell must slash its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels.

In the weeks leading up to the Exxon meeting, more than 7,000 Sierra Club activists sent messages to top executives at Vanguard and BlackRock, the world’s two largest asset managers, to vote against Exxon’s top directors, CEO/Chair Darren Woods and Independent Director Kenneth Frazier, along with a slate of other key shareholder votes for climate action.

In response, Sierra Club financial advocacy campaign manager Ben Cushing offered the following statement:

“Once again, the fossil fuel industry is being told their era is over. The people have told them and demanded change. Elected leaders at every level of government across the country have told them and demanded change. And now, their own shareholders have told them and are forcing change, just as courts are doing so as well. The completion of transitioning the country onto 100% clean energy is going to happen, and the very same corporations that drove and sought to cover-up this crisis must acknowledge reality and take action rather than greenwashing their ongoing efforts to exacerbate it.”