Make reducing greenhouse gases a high government priority
Energy and environment
Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Why shareholder democracy is pivotal
The greenhouse gases at issue come mostly from company operations and products, so corporate decisions to cut emissions advance the goal directly, while a government priority is needed to cover the whole economy. Shareholders press exactly this: As You Sow and the Church of England co-filed resolutions asking ExxonMobil and Chevron to report on aligning with net-zero emissions by 2050. Majorities of Republicans and Democrats already want greenhouse gas reduction treated as a high priority. The documented record of obstacles is dominated by one force: fossil fuel, utility and transportation interests spent more than $2 billion on climate lobbying from 2000 to 2016, vastly outspending environmental and renewable energy groups, and InfluenceMap finds corporate advocacy remains decisive in U.S. climate policy today. With no comparable barrier of any other kind in evidence, we judge that lobbying is the linchpin holding back progress and rate the position pivotal: owners who redirect what their companies advocate for can release the block.
How this was scoredPivotal
Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Common Ground of the American People: Energy & the Environment, Program for Public Consultation / Voice of the People, survey July 2024
- SEC Allows Exxon and Chevron to Bar Shareholders' Request to Report on Alignment With Global Climate Goals, As You Sow, 2020
- US Corporate Climate Advocacy Going Into 2025, InfluenceMap, 2024-12
- Report: Fossil Fuel Industries - The Goliath of Climate-Related Lobbying Efforts, Spent Billions (Brulle, Climatic Change), Drexel University, 2018-07
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Filed resolutions at ExxonMobil asking for reporting on alignment with net zero by 2050 and on the financial effect of declining fossil fuel demand under the IEA net zero pathway.
Shareholders win majority support for climate proposals at Exxon, Chevron, Grist, 2022-05
Co-filed with As You Sow the 2020 ExxonMobil resolution asking for reporting on whether and how the company would reduce its carbon footprint in line with net zero by 2050.
Coordinates investor engagement with the largest emitters, including ExxonMobil, asking them to cut greenhouse gas emissions, improve climate governance and strengthen climate disclosure, and benchmarks them annually.
Exxon Mobil Corp. company assessment, Climate Action 100+, 2025-10
5 campaigns on record
Report how declining fossil fuel demand under the IEA net zero 2050 pathway would affect the company's finances.
Result: 52 percent in favor
Shareholders win majority support for climate proposals at Exxon, Chevron, Grist, 2022-05
Set Paris-Agreement-consistent emissions targets; at ExxonMobil specifically, set targets covering Scope 3 emissions from the use of its products (about 90% of the company's total emissions), which the company had so far declined to do.
Result: 33% of Chevron shareholders and 28% of ExxonMobil shareholders voted in favor The proposal was precatory (advisory and non-binding).
we found no documented change at either company directly attributed to this specific 2022 vote
Set and disclose a plan to reduce all of Chevron's greenhouse gas emissions, including Scope 3 emissions from the use of its products, in line with the Paris Agreement.
Result: 61% of shareholders voted in favor The proposal was precatory (advisory and non-binding).
we found no documented change at Chevron directly attributed to this specific 2021 vote
Engine No. 1, an activist investor holding about 0.02% of Exxon's shares, nominated an independent slate of board candidates and asked shareholders to replace directors with people who had experience managing a profitable transition in the energy industry, arguing the existing board lacked the expertise and independence to manage climate-related business risk and to spend capital with discipline.
Result: Engine No. 1's nominees won 3 of ExxonMobil's 12 board seats (Gregory Goff, Kaisa Hietala, and Alexander Karsner), per ExxonMobil's own June 2, 2021 announcement of preliminary results. Major pension funds including CalPERS, CalSTRS, and the New York State Common Retirement Fund backed the dissident slate.
One year on, ExxonMobil increased Scope 3 emissions disclosure, set more ambitious Scope 1 and 2 targets, shifted from a planned 25% production growth to holding production steady, and added board members with energy-transition experience; Engine No. 1's own team characterized the underlying long-term business strategy, continued heavy spending on new fossil fuel projects (about $30-35 billion a year), and lobbying posture as largely unchanged.
Engine No. 1 wins at least 2 Exxon board seats as activist pushes for climate strategy change, CNBC
Report on whether and how the company intends to reduce its total carbon footprint in alignment with net zero emissions by 2050.
With The Church of England
Result: SEC allowed ExxonMobil and Chevron to omit the proposals for a second consecutive year
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Common Ground of the American People's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.