Just one day before President Trump’s controversial announcement that the U.S. intended to withdraw from the recently ratified Paris climate accord, shareholders of energy giant ExxonMobil defied the company’s board and voted in favor of a climate change-related resolution. The nonbinding resolution would require more detailed analysis and disclosure to shareholders regarding the potential impact of policy changes related to climate change, such as those encouraged by the Paris agreement. “Irrespective of the current administration’s stance on climate change,” one proponent of the resolution argued in a recent press release filed with the SEC, “countries around the world are moving ahead with policies that will limit greenhouse gas emissions and will likely impact the market for ExxonMobil’s products. ExxonMobil puts itself and its long-term investors at risk by failing to acknowledge this reality.”
For more on climate change policies and the Trump administration’s announcement in the context of the business sector, see this post by Marc Butler on our partner Intelligize’s blog.
