Savers back calls for Shell to cut greenhouse gas emissions

The findings come ahead of Shell’s upcoming Annual General Meeting, which will include a shareholder resolution calling on Shell to align its medium-term emissions reduction targets with the Paris Climate Agreement

More than half (58.4%) of savers, equal to nearly 18.5 million people, would vote in favour of wanting Shell to commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, according to research from PensionBee.

The survey showed that pension savers are strongly backing calls for Shell to further lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which would align with the internationally recognised limits to keep global temperatures from increasing to a point that will put human life in danger.

PensionBee also argued that the call for Shell to align its business operations with global climate goals is "reverberating" across the investment landscape, cautioning that pressure is mounting on Shell to "heed the voices of millions of pension savers and embrace a path towards a greener future".

The findings come ahead of Shell’s upcoming Annual General Meeting, which will include a shareholder resolution calling on Shell to align its medium-term emissions reduction targets with the Paris Climate Agreement.

Twenty-seven major shareholders, including a number of UK pension schemes, co-filed the climate resolution with FollowThis in January.

Nonetheless, Shell also faced similar shareholder resolutions in 2023, with last year’s resolution for Shell to align its existing 2030 reduction target with the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement winning 20% of the vote.

PensionBee chief engagement officer, Clare Reilly, said: Pension savers are long term investors with a vested interest in ensuring that companies such as Shell are not reducing their chances of a healthy and safe retirement.

The overwhelming response from our survey shows pension savers want to see the big polluters commit to more aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2030, she said.

Savers foresee that a chaotic climate transition will be a costly climate transition, impacting their pots as much as their air quality, she added.

Commenting in response, a Shell spokesperson said: The 2024 resolution from FollowThis is broadly unchanged from their 2023 submission, which was rejected by shareholders (as its variations have been every year since first being submitted in 2016).

Shell’s Board has previously advised shareholders that the FollowThis resolution was unrealistic and simplistic, that it would have no impact on alleviating climate change, have negative consequences for our customers, and was against the interests of the firm and our shareholders, the spokesperson said.

Continued, targeted investment in oil and gas will remain necessary to meet global energy demand over the coming decades as the world transitions to a lower carbon future, the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson said: By the end of last year, the net carbon intensity (NCI) of the energy products sold by Shell – a metric that measures emissions per unit of energy sold (grams of CO? equivalent per megajoule) – had dropped by 6.3%, compared with 2016.