Target 12.c: Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies
Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Subsidy reform is a fiscal decision by governments. The IMF estimated fossil-fuel subsidies at a record 7 trillion dollars in 2022. The blocking obstacle is corporate political influence. InfluenceMap documents that BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies maintain a global network of industry associations highly active against Paris-aligned climate policy, while their communications emphasize green claims. Shareholder votes on lobbying alignment at oil majors remove a necessary obstacle but cannot deliver the reform itself, so governments must also act.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
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
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Coordinates the Ceres Investor Network and Climate Action 100+ campaign asking oil and gas companies to report whether their lobbying aligns with the Paris Agreement.
Lead filer of the Paris-aligned lobbying proposals at Chevron in 2020 and ExxonMobil in 2021.
Co-filed the 2020 ExxonMobil lobbying report proposal, arguing the company's disclosures omit state-level lobbying and trade association spending.
3 campaigns on record
Report on how the company's direct and trade association lobbying aligns with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming.
Result: 63.8 percent in favour.
Produce a report disclosing the extent to which the company's lobbying aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Result: 53 percent majority support, the first year such a measure appeared on Chevron's ballot.
Publish an annual report on lobbying policies, payments and recipients, including the state-level lobbying and trade association spending that the company's public disclosures leave out.
With Boston Trust Walden
Result: not stated in source
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 UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.