Shareholders Voting on Climate Resolutions

Shareholders Voting on Climate Resolutions



May 2007 -   Investors have filed 42 global 
warming resolutions with U.S. companies as part of the 2007 proxy season, 
when corporations hold their annual meetings of shareholders. This figure 
is nearly double the number of climate-related resolutions filed just 
three years ago. 
The global warming resolutions were compiled by CERES, a coalition of 
investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations 
working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global 
climate change. 
Seeking greater disclosure from companies on their responses and 
strategies to climate-related business trends, the resolutions were filed 
by state and city pension funds and labor, foundation, religious and other 
institutional shareholders, who collectively manage more than $200 billion 
in assets. 
Some of the resolutions at these companies are not proceeding to a vote 
either because the proposal was withdrawn by shareholders after a 
satisfactory pledge by the company to implement the request, or because 
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission excluded the proposal on 
technical grounds. 
While the resolutions can be filed and brought up for a vote, often they 
are rejected by shareholders, as Ford Motor Company shareholders did 
Thursday. 
In the wake of General Motors’ endorsement of a national climate change 
policy calling for a 60 to 80 percent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas 
emissions by 2050, some institutional investors filed a proposal calling 
on Ford to do the same. 
The proposal asking Ford to adopt "quantitative goals for reducing total 
greenhouse gas emissions from the company's products and operations" 
garnered only 14.12 percent support of the shareholders. 
"It is crucial for corporations to engage in the discipline of 
establishing reduction goals for products and operations in the near 
term," said Caldwell Dominican Sister Patricia Daly, OP executive director 
of the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment and lead filer of 
the shareholder resolution with Ford. "Targets for 2050 are meaningless 
unless companies acknowledge that a strategic plan needs to be in place in 
the short term." 
The bottom line has so far determined the fate of global warming 
resolutions at this season's shareholders' meetings. (Photo credit 
unknown)
CERES President Mindy Lubber also directs the Investor Network on Climate 
Risk, a $4 trillion network of investors focused on the business impacts 
of climate change. She had hoped Ford shareholders would approve the 
proposal. 
"Winning the support from the nation’s largest automaker for mandatory 
national legislation is a big shift in moving policymakers and our economy 
towards a low-carbon future," Lubber said. "Now we’d like to see the same 
commitment from the country’s second-largest automaker. 
"By supporting a tough national policy and setting goals to reduce 
tailpipe emissions from its products, Ford would send a strong message to 
investors that it is ready to protect its global competitiveness by taking 
the steps necessary to provide cleaner, more fuel efficient vehicles that 
the world is demanding," she said. 
The shareholders of other corporations have already rejected 
climate-related resolutions this season. 
Only 10 percent of Whole Foods shareholders supported a resolution on 
March 5 that requested the company to "assess its response to rising 
regulatory, competitive, and public pressure to increase energy 
efficiency" and report to shareholders by July 1, 2007. 
Only nine percent of Chevron shareholders supported such a proposal on 
April 25. 
On April 27, the shareholders of energy company Dominion Resources voted 
22 percent in favor of a resolution which requested a board-reviewed 
report on how the company is responding "to rising regulatory, 
competitive, and public pressure to significantly reduce carbon dioxide 
and other emissions from the company's current and proposed power plant 
operations." 
Similar resolutions have been filed and are pending with General Motors, 
ExxonMobil and Southern Co., Allegheny Energy, TXU, and Massey Energy, 
which are among the largest greenhouse gas emitting companies in the 
country.    

       
      

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