One month after the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report (1), the 2023 season of shareholder annual general meetings (AGMs) begins. Between the end of April and the end of May, the major financial players and companies will meet their shareholders to present the results of the past year and their future strategy. This is an opportunity for banks, insurers and investors to act for the climate, by strengthening their climate commitments and using their shareholder power to push companies to do more to tackle the climate emergency.
While the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) projections call for no more new oil and gas fields to be developed in order to follow a 1.5°C trajectory (2), the main financial players – BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and its subsidiary Amundi, Société Générale, AXA and, SCOR – continue to support companies developing new oil and gas projects (3), such as TotalEnergies.
This year, several local community representatives will travel to Paris to challenge their support for oil and gas expansion and to remind the financial institutions of the disastrous impacts of the development of new oil and gas projects. These representatives from the United States, the Philippines and Argentina are fighting against shale gas, liquefied natural gas and offshore gas terminal projects, which have catastrophic consequences for the environment, the climate and human lives.
Will financial actors be able to put social and climate justice at the heart of the 2023 AGM season by reinforcing their climate policies with strong measures against oil and gas expansion and by using their shareholder position to vote against the management of companies that are intent on destroying the climate? Reclaim Finance presents the issues at stake at the key AGMs of the major French financial institutions.
