Woodside Energy has suffered an embarrassing rebuke of its climate credentials after its emissions plan was overwhelmingly rejected by shareholders at its annual general meeting on Wednesday.
Investors lodged a 58% vote against Woodside’s climate report, representing the strongest protest recorded against any of the dozens of listed companies around the world that regularly put climate-related resolutions to shareholders.
The Woodside chair, Richard Goyder, who survived a push against his own re-election at the AGM, said he was disappointed by the result, which was non-binding.
“The board will seriously consider the outcome when reviewing our approach to climate change,” Goyder told shareholders in Perth. “We take the shareholder feedback seriously.”
The well-known businessman, who also chairs Qantas and the AFL, was defiant, telling investors that Woodside’s operations were part of the solution to climate change.
“The world’s going to be a heck of a lot better off if it moves from coal-fired power to gas-fired power as soon as it can,” he said.
The battle over Woodside’s climate plan pitted the country’s biggest oil and gas producer against global and Australian investors increasingly concerned about the energy sector’s contribution to global warming.
Critics believe Woodside’s strategy is overly reliant on offsets, not aligned with Paris climate agreements, and does not seriously consider emissions produced by those using its gas.
The producer has also been criticised for pursuing plans to develop new fields, representing an expansion in fossil fuel production at a time opponents say the sector must rein in emissions.
The criticism rubs against the position laid out by Woodside representatives, who repeatedly said the company was poised to “thrive through the energy transition” and was required for energy security.
The Woodside chief executive, Meg O’Neill, said the company was proud of the role gas was playing to support decarbonisation. She said some rivals had retreated on their climate goals after being unrealistic.
“At Woodside, we are determined to play our role in addressing climate change, but we won’t make promises that we can’t deliver,” she said on Wednesday.
Climate reports, which detail how a company plans to align operations with rising environmental concerns, are subject to non-binding votes and therefore don’t automatically trigger a policy change.
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They are, however, a way for shareholders to express their disapproval, placing pressure on directors to change direction, especially given some of the world’s biggest investment and pension funds, including AustralianSuper, have now voted against Woodside’s plans.
Harriet Kater from the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, a shareholder advocacy group, said the scale of the report’s rejection was “globally unprecedented” and that the board must now act.
“It is inconceivable for Richard Goyder’s board to continue its trend of dismissing shareholder concerns following this overwhelming rejection of Woodside’s climate plan,” Kater said.
The AGM attracted a significant protest, with about 200 activists outside the meeting, flanked by police, chanting and holding placards with anti-Woodside messaging.
“Shame on Woodside, when you gonna learn, you can’t make money on a planet that burns,” they chanted, AAP reported. “Six months no rain, Woodside are to blame.”
The AGM was briefly suspended at one stage to remove protesters who were in the meeting.
–AAP contributed to this report