|
The sponsors and supporters of the resolution, which include
the clients of TrilliumAsset Management Corp., Walden Asset
Management, and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility, support BP Amoco’s goal to play a leading
role in meeting the world’s energy needs without damaging
the environment and to follow its stated intent to go ‘beyond
petroleum’. But the company needs to provide shareholders
with a detailed plan on how it intends to implement such a
policy.
Two hard realities threaten the future profitability of our
company. First, the world will likely begin to run out of
oil in the coming decades. The company’s profits depend on
investments that take decades to mature. Shareholders need
a road map providing shareholders with the company’s strategy
for shifting its profit center from hydrocarbon extraction
to sustainable forms of energy.
Second, restrictions on carbon emissions responsible for
climate change will limit the future market for carbon-based
fuels. The United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden,
and Holland have passed domestic measures to force down greenhouse
gas emissions. Automakers are planning transportation that
will soon be powered by hydrogen and electricity, not petroleum.
A report analyzing BP’s exposure to increased risk because
of climate change by financial analysts Innovest Strategic
Value Advisors confirmed the importance of our proposal to
the company’s future. The report concluded that "BP's
plans to expand upstream oil and gas production may serve
to heighten the firm's exposure to climate change-related
risks to the extent that carbon constraints disrupt demand
for fossil fuels. As such, shareholders would be justified
in seeking clarification of the company's risk mitigation
strategy." For the full text of the report go to
Innovest BP Study.
Company management acknowledges that "Today financial,
social and environmental performance is inseparable. Competitive
advantage will go to those who anticipate the pace and breadth
of the changes implied by sustainable development without
penalizing their financial performance." Shareholder
proponents agree. But with its continued reliance on carbon-based
fuels, the company has not adequately prepared for the day
when it must rely on other fuels.
Global Warming is one of the greatest threats facing the
planet today. If fossil fuels combustion continues at
current rates, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere could
double by the end of the century. This could cause a
rise in global temperatures leading to inundation of many
of the world's coastal regions, islands and low lying areas;
increased spread of disease; and prolonged heat waves leading
to severe drought.
BP Amoco is one of the five largest carbon producers in
the world. BP Amoco’s worldwide oil and gas production
activities have adverse impacts at both the global and regional
level. The greatest environmental impact of BP Amoco's core
business is carbon pollution from the burning of fossil fuels,
such as oil and gas. Carbon pollution causes global warming.
Our company acknowledges that climate protection will require
a major reduction in fossil fuel use and that this is likely
to affect the company’s main businesses. But the Company’s
current strategy of oil and gas exploration runs counter to
this logic, exacerbating climate change and threatening the
destruction of fragile wilderness areas such as the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.
Commendably, BP has committed to reducing its facilities’
global warming pollution by 2010. However, this commitment
does nothing to address the global warming pollution that
results from burning the oil that our company produces. With
lawmakers already moving to cap these emissions, shareholders
deserve a detailed outline on how BP intends to shift away
from its core business of fossil fuel production and towards
developing sustainable energy.
Shareholders are requesting that BP write a report that
includes quantified targets and clear timescales for:
-
Absolute reductions in aggregate greenhouse gas emissions
associated with the group’s operations and products;
-
Investment in renewable energy as a proportion of overall
group investment; and
-
Changes in the composition of the group’s energy production
to reduce and eventually phase out its production and
sale of carbon based fuels.
Shareholders are also concerned that BP has not adequately
addressed the role that oil and gas exploration plays in damaging
vulnerable ecosystems. A prime example is our company’s continued
support for oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A majority of Americans and
Canadians oppose opening the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas
drilling. BP’s investment capital should be invested in the
promising renewable energy business opportunities now available
to the company rather than on campaigns to open the Arctic
Refuge for drilling. Shareholders regret that BP Amoco prevented
a shareholder resolution on this topic from coming to a vote.
Last year thirteen percent of BP Amoco shareholders supported
a similar resolution that called on the company to increase
investment in solar power.
This resolution also gives BP Amoco’s shareholders an opportunity
to affirm the importance of matching our company’s environmental
vision with actual deeds essential for longer-term financial
success in a world where protecting the environment will be
one of the great challenges, and business opportunities, of
the coming decades.
Please vote for detailed information on moving our company
to sustainable energy sources with a vote FOR Resolution 18.
Thank you!
|
