The Church Commissioners, which manages the Church of England’s £10bn endowment fund, will vote against all directors at the upcoming AGMs of Exxon, Occidental Petroleum, Shell, and Total, in response to their failure to meet climate change objectives.

In particular, the Church will vote to oust Shell’s chief executive Wael Sawan and chairman Sir Andrew Macenzie, having lost faith that the company is genuinely seeking a transition to renewable energy and net-zero and accusing it of failing to use recent profit windfalls to accelerate progress.

“High energy prices produced huge profits at oil and gas companies last year – a golden opportunity to invest very significantly in the transition to a low carbon economy, and one that was comprehensively missed,” said Olga Hancock, acting head of responsible investment at the Church Commissioners. “So we will be supporting all the relevant climate resolutions, and voting against all of their directors.”

The Church of England has long history of fighting for more action on climate change actively engaging with fossil fuel companies in an effort to change their behaviour, and four years ago the Church of England’s General Synod called for the Church of England’s National Investing Bodies to divest from fossil fuel companies not aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement by 2023.

Oil companies have been facing increasing pressure from likeminded organisations over the last few years, evidenced by recent action against BP’s climate action reduction and attempts to oust its chairman Helge Lund by pensions funds. In this case the Church’s actions are limited given the value of its investment, and whilst it has allies as part of the Climate Action 100+ group, such as Blackrock, Legal and General and Aviva, it is unlikely to succeed. However, a growing vote of disaffection could set a trend.

Shell has its own target of reducing its emissions 50 per cent by 2030, and has stated that it is more than halfway towards that goal.

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