In a rebuke of ExxonMobil’s Board and Management, at today’s annual meeting 18.5% of ExxonMobil shareholders representing around $69 billion in Exxon shares voted to support Tri-State CRI’s resolution calling for Exxon to acknowledge the moral imperative to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius or less.

Faith based investors welcome this strong signal from investors, which makes it clear that expectations are increasing on climate change. We are encouraged by the 61% vote in support of Proxy Access, 38% vote in favor of 2 Degree Scenario Planning, and 20.9% vote in favor of an independent Board member with climate expertise. This meeting, the first since the Paris Climate Agreement, indicates there has been a turning point which ExxonMobil can no longer ignore.

In the meeting discussion, ExxonMobil continued to present false solutions to climate change, focusing on the need to provide access to energy, without due consideration of the climate impacts of this strategy. For example, at the meeting, CEO Rex Tillerson said “It is a judgment of balance between future climatic events which could be catastrophic but are unknown, by the IPCC’s own acknowledgement, and more immediate needs of humanity today to address poverty, starvation, broad-based disease control, and the quality of life that billions of people are living in today, which is unacceptable to many of us.” This presents a false choice. “There must be a balance between providing critical access to energy that will improve current living conditions with the future climate impacts that may be catastrophic. The rhetoric from today’s meeting demonstrated that ExxonMobil is not considering the potential unmitigated warming and associated impacts that are part of its current strategy. We instead need them to make commitments that will include providing sustainable energy access, as peers in the industry have begun to do,” said Mary Beth Gallagher, Associate Director Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment.

Press Coverage:

Climate Change Activists Either Prod Exxon Mobil or Sell It: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/science/exxon-mobil-annual-meeting.html?_r=0

Exxon Mobil’s shareholders meeting was totally overrun by climate demands:  http://grist.org/climate-energy/exxon-mobils-shareholders-meeting-was-totally-overrun-by-climate-demands/

Exxon faces shareholder showdown today on climate change: http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060037840

Scientific American/Climate Wire: ExxonMobil Faces Showdown with Shareholders over Climate Change:  http://bit.ly/25lLoPy

Dallas morning News: Here are some of the activist groups taking on oil goliath Exxon: http://bit.ly/1OWLfKW

New York Times: Exxon Investors Seek Assurance as Climate Shifts, Along With Attitudes: http://nyti.ms/1scCUc3

National Catholic Reporter: Sisters lead the way in mission investing that influences corporate policy and advances social good: http://bit.ly/1TC5avs

National Public Radio: Exxon Mobil, Chevron Shareholders Reject Resolutions Aimed At Battling Climate Change: http://n.pr/1ONVeNf

Preliminary Votes Outcomes (not counting abstentions):

Item 4 – Independent Chairman – 38.8% for

Item 5 – Climate Expert on Board – 20.9% for 79.1% against

Item 6 – Hire an Investment Bank  – 2%  for

Item 7 – Proxy Access Bylaw – 61.9% for 38.1% against

Item 8 – Report on Compensation for Women  – 8.5% for 91.5% against

Item 9 – Report on Lobbying – 25.8% for 74.2% against

Item 10 – Increase Capital Distributions – 4.1% for – 95.9 against

Item 11 – Policy to Limit Global Warming to 2°C – 18.5% FOR 81.5% against

Item 12 – Report on Impacts of Climate Change Policies – 38.2% for 61.8 against

Item 13 – Report Reserve Replacements in BTUs – 5.5% FOR and 94.5 % against

Item 14 – Report on Hydraulic Fracturing – 24.5% for 75.5 against