Long-term climate promises are easy for companies to make but much harder to keep in the short term. Amid board pressure to maximize profits for the next quarter, actually moving toward more sustainable practices tends to be pushed back to an unspecified point in the future.
After Equinor, a major Norwegian oil and gas company, went back on its climate pledges, a major shareholder decided enough was enough and pulled out, according to Reuters.
British investment firm Sarasin & Partners initially invested in the company in 2021 and saw Equinor as a potential key partner in achieving a clean energy transition. The company led talks with Equinor as it signed on to Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative to ensure companies take the necessary steps to cut harmful pollution.
While the company has committed to net-zero emissions by 2050, it has not shown any progress in reaching that goal in the short term.
For 2027, Equinor ASA has not met any of the criteria set by Climate Action 100+. Last year, the company's board defeated a motion tabled by Sarasin to take more action to align with its stated goals. Equinor also plans to increase its oil and gas production by 15% through 2030.
"Instead of leading the transition, Equinor has followed other oil and gas majors in rolling back its efforts," Sarasin said in an investor's letter to the company. The investors derided Equinor's claims that it was aligned with its goals as "not credible."
The divestment shows that investors have leverage they can use to pressure companies into doing the right thing. Equally important is taking local action. One of Equinor's new projects is an oilfield in Rosebank, off the coast of the Scottish Shetland Islands. The deal was signed by the former conservative government, and activists are working to pressure the new Labour government to cancel the contract.
Lauren MacDonald, a Scottish climate activist leading the effort to stop Rosebank, told the Guardian, "Every single fossil fuel project that we can stop, every single fraction is a degree of warming that we can stop. It's countless lives saved, which will always, always be worth it."
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