Companies Must Prepare for Increasingly Demanding Climate Activism
Follow This is expecting "Say-on-Climate" questions aligned with the Paris Agreement for scopes 1, 2 and 3. Already 24 Say-on-Climate proposals are planned for 2022. 11 March 2022
Bruno de Roulhac pens an article on the increased activism surrounding climate issues by a variety of stakeholders. In the United States, where the filing of resolutions by shareholders is easier than in Europe, support for climate resolutions in the S&P 1,500 rose from 26% in 2019 to 41% in 2021, highlights Louis Barbier SquareWell Partners, during a round table co-organized with Chapter Zero France.
Why such an acceleration? For the Dutch organization Follow This, active in oil companies, the filing of resolutions is the best shareholder leverage, and allows to engage in a precise discussion on the climate transition. “A resolution that comes up every year quantifies the impatience of shareholders, underlines Tarek Bouhouch, representative of Follow This for France. Our resolutions are enjoying increasing success, going from 2.5% to 15%” in a few years. For the NGO, a real “Say on Climate” provides for alignment with the Paris Agreement for scopes 1, 2 and 3. However, the resolutions tabled by Atos and Total are not, adds Tarek Bouhouch. They are only ‘house’ resolutions calling for a plebiscite for climate ambition”. For this year, already 24 climate resolutions from companies have been announced around the world, according to SquareWell.
Read the full article here (in French, subscription required).
