XPost: alt.global-warming

*Wall Street's `monumental' skirmish with Exxon
Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic via Carbon Brief

The coverage of Shell's defeat in court last week and the placement of
two activist investors on Exxon's board of directors continues, with journalists reflecting on what the 2 events mean for the fossil fuel
industry. Robinson Meyer writes for the Atlantic about how, despite
controlling just 0.02% of Exxon, activist hedge fund Engine No. 1
succeeded in placing 2 investors on the oil company's board of
directors. He notes that to achieve this they won the support of large state-pension funds "that try to act in the best interest of the
entire market" and newer financial firms, such as State Street and
BlackRock. "Working together, these funds brought Exxon to heel,"
Meyer concludes: "Last week, Exxon's shareholders - that is, the
owners of capital - acted to rein in Exxon's managers and
insiders. Capital has apparently been recruited into the fight against
climate change; Wall Street is, à la Mothra versus Godzilla, battling
Big Oil. If that's surprising, it shows how tangled the politics of decarbonisation has become".

A piece by columnist Thomas Friedman in the New York Times also
considers events at Exxon, writing that the "petroleum age will end
because we invent superior technology that coexists harmoniously with
nature", while leaving plenty of oil still in the ground. "Alas,
though, not every oil company got the memo," he writes. In light of
the shareholder revolt during what Friedman describes as "one of the
most consequential weeks in the history of the oil and gas industry
and shareholder capitalism", he notes that Engine No. 1 "are out to
strengthen Exxon, not destroy it. They view it as one of the world's
greatest collections of scientific and engineering talent." He says
that while the activists appreciate Exxon's plans for a carbon-capture facility, they also think it needs to invest in a more diversified
energy sources "while it still has an income stream from oil and
gas". By contrast, Wall Street Journal editorial board member and
climate sceptic Holman W Jenkins, Jr describes what happened at Exxon
as a "pseudo-event" that has been overhyped as a climate
victory. Jenkins argues that asking oil companies to "voluntarily
refrain from producing a legal product for which there is huge and
inelastic demand" is "absurd", as is proposing Exxon switch to wind
and solar, "in which it has no expertise or advantage".

In the Conversation, Prof Arthur Petersen, a professor of science,
technology and public policy at University College London, writes that
the order by Dutch judges that Shell must implement stringent carbon
dioxide emissions cuts within the next few years "could have far
reaching consequences". He continues: "The question arises as to
whether any company anywhere in the world can be ordered by Dutch
judges to reduce their emissions". Petersen notes that "legally there
is nothing fundamentally new happening here" and adds that "more of
these cases may follow, in the Netherlands and elsewhere, and the
strength of the legal logic will definitely put additional pressures
on politicians and businesses to organise for a more rapid low-carbon transition". In the Guardian, Tessa Khan, an international human
rights lawyer working on climate change litigation, writes that
Shell's loss is a "turning point in the fight against big oil". "The
door to real corporate accountability for the climate crisis is
finally wide open," she writes.


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