Record-high support for a climate change resolution surprised even presenters of the resolution at ExxonMobil’s Annual Shareholder meeting on May 25. The Kyoto Compliance Report Resolution calls for board of directors to undertake a comprehensive review on how it will meet greenhouse gas reductions targets in countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol. The unprecedented 28.3 percent vote for the resolution represents 1.5 billion shares with a market value of about $83.8 billion.

The highest vote for an environmental resolution before this meeting was 22.2 percent for a climate change resolution at the 2003 annual meeting.

The vote was a victory for the faithful effort of International Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition representing 125 Catholic, Protestant and Jewish groups.

Michael Crosby, a priest in the Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, introduced the resolution. He has been involved in ICCR’s efforts to bring environmental issues to ExxonMobil shareholder meetings since they began in 1997. “No environment-related issue has had such a high vote in an ExxonMobil shareholder meeting,” Crosby said. “It surpassed my expectations. Even institutional investors voted for the resolution.”

Crosby first became concerned about ExxonMobil’s position on the environment when he read news media reports about comments on global warming by Lee Raymond, the company’s CEO. Business Week and The Wall Street Journal reported that while visiting China, Raymond discounted studies warning about global warming, and said even if global warming did exist, developing countries should not impose restrictions on the developed world.

Crosby and John Passacantando, now Greenpeace executive director, tried to talk with ExxonMobil leadership about changing their position on global warming without success. So they met with the directors of ICCR and suggested taking a climate change resolution to the Exxon Mobil shareholders’ meeting. In 1997 five or six groups filed the resolution. This year’s meeting had at least 45 member groups supporting environmental resolutions.

Two other resolutions concerning environmental issues were presented by ICCR members: The Climate Science Report Resolution asking ExxonMobil’s board of directors to provide shareholders with research data supporting the company’s position on the science of climate change received 10.3 percent of the vote. A resolution calling for the company to nominate at least two independent directors who hold expertise in the oil energy industry received 4.1 percent.

Before voting, speakers had two minutes to discuss reasons for and against each resolution. Many speakers criticized the company’s continued insistence that mainstream science on global warming is inconclusive and its blatant opposition to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. They expressed their concern about the company’s reputation in a world that is becoming more concerned about the environment.

One speaker said, “I hope we can come back next year and congratulate the company on leading climate research.” Lee Raymond replied, “We are already the leader.”

Shareholders’ concerns about the board of directors' persistent disregard for warnings about climate change are based on extensive worldwide studies by leading scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international group of experts charged with climate change research stated in its 2001 Third Assessment Report: “There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activity …” The study suggests that climate changes, such as higher global temperatures and increased precipitation, are very likely. A 2004 report by the Bush Administration’s Climate Change Science Program states that increases in human-derived greenhouse gas emissions are the only likely explanation for global warming of the past three decades.”

ExxonMobil is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The company’s carbon dioxide emissions of more than 20 billion tons of carbon make up about 5 percent, or one-twentieth, of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions, according to a 2003 study commissioned by Friends of the Earth http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/exxons_climate_footprint.pdf .

“As the largest oil company in the world, ExxonMobil needs to be held accountable for a significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions,” says Jane Dale Owen, ExxonMobil shareholder and the president of Citizens’ League for Environmental Action Now. Owen is granddaughter of Robert Lee Blaffer, one of the founders of Humble Oil (predecessor to ExxonMobil). She says her grandfather would not agree with the company’s position on climate change. “I believe that my grandfather, were he alive, would have been the first to accept the scientific consensus concerning global warming and would have taken responsibility for the company’s contribution to the problem,” Owen says. “By pursuing the irresponsible course it has chosen, ExxonMobil is violating the values of my grandfather’s company and risking the money that other shareholders and I have invested.”

Shareholders in favor of the company becoming more environmentally responsible hope this year’s record-high support for a climate change resolution will encourage the board of directors to take steps to improve corporate strategies regarding the environment. ChevronTexaco and other U.S. oil companies have taken action to improve their position on climate change issues after shareholders of several oil and gas companies voted in record numbers in support of resolutions related to climate change issues.

ExxonMobil claims to be “taking on the world’s toughest energy challenges” and states that they base decisions on “real thinking” instead of “wishful thinking.” The reality is that fifteen countries and 13 states have renewable energy mandates. The World Energy Council reports that the global market for renewable energy is likely to be in the range of $234 to $625 billion by 2010 and $1,900 billion by 2020. Shell is investing $1 billion in renewable energy and has established renewable energy division with wind, solar and bio-fuel. BP is spending $100 million to make its Spain solar manufacturing plant one of the world’s largest. ExxonMobil stands alone among major energy companies in persistently ignoring the evidence that shows global warming as a real threat to the planet and in denying the need to develop alternative energy sources.