Target 14.3: Minimize ocean acidification
Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
NOAA PMEL explains that ocean acidification is caused by seawater absorbing anthropogenic CO2 from fossil fuel burning, cement production and deforestation. The only mitigation is therefore emissions reduction. That lever runs through the same fossil fuel, utility, cement and agribusiness companies documented for Goal 13. It also faces the same lobbying obstacle: InfluenceMap finds 39 percent of assessed US entities advocate against IPCC-aligned policy. Shareholders have already secured majority votes on emissions targets and Paris-aligned lobbying at ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 in 2021. The causal chain runs through global emissions policy and scientific cooperation as well as corporate conduct. Owners remove a necessary obstacle while governments and scientific bodies 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
Files shareholder resolutions at oil and gas majors asking for Paris-aligned emissions reduction targets covering Scope 3, the emissions cuts that are the only mitigation for ocean acidification.
1 campaign on record
Set emissions reduction targets including Scope 3, aligned with the Paris Agreement.
Result: 80 percent of shareholders voted in favor
Company set emissions reduction goals including Scope 3, described by Follow This as the first major US oil company to tighten climate targets.
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 UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.