Investors' groups pressure oil firms to be 'greener'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A coalition of the world's biggest institutional investors stepped up the pressure on oil and gas companies to become greener yesterday, as they kicked off a campaign to clamp down on their "fracking" activities.
An alliance of 200 institutions – which control more than $20trn (£13trn) of assets worldwide and include Scottish Widows, the BBC Pension Trust, the US pension giant Calpers and APG of Holland – has pledged to take action to reduce the amount of methane that oil and gas companies emit when fracking for hydrocarbons.
Fracking – or hydraulic fracturing – is a controversial practice that involves blasting a mixture of sand, chemicals and water into shale rocks to release the hydrocarbons they contain. The process releases into the atmosphere large quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, which makes it a key contributor to global warming.
The alliance of institutions, which also includes the pension fund for Britain's railway workers and Aviva Management, will begin by discussing companies' approach to controlling methane emissions from fracking, discussing regulatory measures with policymakers and working with the industry to "develop a framework to enable monitoring of companies' progress on methane control". Although no specific punishments are planned for non-compliance, a spokesman for the alliance said failure to comply with the institutional shareholder requests "will inform investors' judgement about quality of management with possible consequences for investment decisions".
Craig Mackenzie, head of sustainability at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, said the campaign marked a significant step forward in the handling of green issues.
Noting that as recently as five years ago only a handful of smaller shareholders were interested in a company's environmental record, Mr Mackenzie estimates this coalition of largely mainstream institutions controls about a fifth of the shares of major global oil companies such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil.
"What really sets this campaign apart from others is its focus on a single issue, in this case the methane emitted from fracking," said Craig Mackenzie.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments