SEC Rules Anadarko Must Include Shareholder Proposal Requesting Disclosure on Company’s Alignment with Paris Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact: Stefanie Spear, [email protected], 216-387-1609

Oakland, CA—March 6, 2019—The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled Monday that Anadarko Petroleum Corporation cannot exclude a shareholder proposal filed by As You Sow. The proposal asks the company to issue a report describing if, and how, it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

This proposal begins where company-specific climate risk assessments leave off, focusing on the risk the company is creating to the global climate from the full range of its operations, investments, and products, and whether and how Anadarko plans to reduce this impact.   

The SEC found that the proposal “transcends ordinary business matters and does not seek to micromanage the company to such a degree that exclusion of the proposal would be appropriate.”

Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow, had this to say about the SEC ruling:

“This important SEC decision allows shareholders to ask a company like Anadarko to disclose whether it is taking responsibility to reduce the full range of its climate emissions — from its operations through its products. A warming climate, and the litany of daily harms it causes to people, the environment, and the economy, translates into lost value to shareholder portfolios. And these harms are projected to grow over time.

“Shareholders can now benchmark companies against one another in terms of their climate actions and responsibility. Where companies disclose they are not acting in line with global climate needs, shareholders can move their investments to those companies that are.”

For more information on As You Sow’s work on climate change, click here.

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As You Sow is a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies. Click here to see As You Sow’s shareholder resolution tracker.