Valero Energy Corp: Disclosure of Carbon Offset Accounting
WHEREAS: Transparent and accurate emissions disclosures are an essential tool for investors seeking to assess corporate climate risk.[1] Scope 3 emissions, including emissions from the use of its fossil fuel products, are known to make up nearly 90% of the oil and gas industry’s overall emissions, emphasizing the need for transparent and accurate Scope 3 disclosures.[2] Although Valero Energy Corp discloses its Scope 1 and 2 operational emissions, it does not disclose its Scope 3, value-chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions leaving investors in the dark about the vast majority of the Company’s emissions.
Most major oil and gas companies, including Valero’s peers Phillips 66 and Marathon Petroleum disclose Scope 3 emissions from the combustion of their sold products.[3] Even Neste, a global leader in biofuels refining, clearly and transparently reports Scope 1 - 3 emissions from its renewable fuel products, complying with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and keeping its disclosures comparable with other energy companies.[4]
The utility of Valero’s existing emissions disclosures is severely limited by the Company’s failure to disclose its major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and by its departure from the well-accepted norms of GHG accounting used by Valero’s peers. While the Company does disclose GHG emissions intensity figures of sold products, this limited disclosure is significantly less useful to investors than that of Valero’s peers and other major oil and gas companies, which disclose Scope 3 emissions inventories.
Valero’s failure to provide full and comparable information impedes effective investor decision-making by obscuring Valero’s full climate impact and its exposure to climate-related risk. By increasing the Company’s GHG emissions disclosures in alignment with its peers, Valero can provide investors with transparent and decision-useful information about the Company’s degree of exposure to climate-related risk.
BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that Valero measure and disclose its material Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Given that the vast majority of Valero’s greenhouse gas emissions are likely Scope 3 product-related emissions, at management discretion, Valero’s Scope 3 disclosure could be limited to product-related emissions to minimize cost while serving investors’ transparency needs.
[1] https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/Corporate-Value-Chain-Accounting-Reporing-Standard_041613_2.pdf, p.47, 107, 109; https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/ghg-protocol-rvevised.pdf, p.81; https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/18_WP_Comparative-Emissions_final.pdf, p.12
[2] https://www.americanprogress.org/article/why-companies-should-be-required-to-disclose-their-scope-3-emissions/
[3] https://issuu.com/phillips66co/docs/2024_sustainability_and_people_report, p.27, 53; https://www.marathonpetroleum.com/content/documents/Responsibility/Sustainability_Report/2023_SustainabilityReport.pdf, p.8, 47; https://www.neste.com/en-us/sustainability/reporting, p.38
[4] https://www.neste.com/en-us/sustainability/reporting, p.38; https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/Corporate-Value-Chain-Accounting-Reporing-Standard_041613_2.pdf, p.21
Resolution Details
Company: Valero Energy Corp.
Lead Filers:
As You Sow
Year: 2025
Filing Date:
November 2024
Initiative(s): Climate Accounting
Status: Filed