Green lobby loses eco-vote at BP meeting
Date: 19-Apr-02
Country: UK
Author: Neil Chatterjee
Shareholders at the company's annual general meeting voted 89 percent against a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) resolution calling on the multinational to disclose how it measures and controls the risks to its investors of operating in environmentally sensitive areas.
The company also said at the meeting that it would not sell its 2.2 percent stake in leading Chinese oil producer PetroChina , despite a call by the Free Tibet Campaign to do so.
"This was focused on BP's risk management - we're not just a bunch of tree huggers - it's not easy to get a vote questioning how they run their company," said Jules Peck of the WWF, a lobby group devoted to conserving endangered species.
"This isn't the end of the dialogue, the panda has shown its teeth," he told Reuters, referring to the WWF's logo.
Peck said BP had decided to make additional information available on risk management since WWF filed the resolution in December. This is the third year environmentalists have set up a vote for a similar resolution, with 13 percent in favour last year.
"It was a mild resolution designed to get support, but the figures speak for themselves," said a BP spokesman. He said that given 59 percent of shareholders voted, only seven percent of them overall had backed it.
WORRIES OVER ARCTIC DRILLING
The resolution came just before U.S. President George W. Bush suffered a major energy-policy defeat with a Senate vote on his administration's plan to give oil companies access to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Bush, a former Texas oilman, made drilling in the refuge the centerpiece of his proposed U.S. energy policy but failed to gain the 60 votes necessary to end the debate and allow drilling to go ahead.
BP has launched a costly marketing campaign to disassociate itself from the oil industry's reputation for despoiling natural habitats.
But its dominant position in Alaska have left its claim on the ethical high ground open to attack.
"If BP doesn't live up to its image, if it doesn't distinguish itself from its peers, it may find a lot of investors disinvest," said Shelley Alpern, Assistant Vice President of Trillium Asset Management, which manages $700 million in socially responsible funds.
The WWF resolution said the risks included the ability to attract and retain high quality staff.
Shaunna Sutcliffe, a student from Oregon State University, said she had brought 100,000 signatures to the meeting from U.S. students who had vowed not to work for BP if it drilled in the Arctic.