BP suffers heavy defeat in investor climate vote

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BP was handed a heavy defeat by its shareholders over its attempt to reduce its reporting requirements on climate issues, as investors also mounted a rebellion against new chair Albert Manifold.

Two special resolutions put forward at the UK oil major’s annual meeting on Thursday only gained the support of 47 per cent of voting investors, far below the 75 per cent threshold required for the proposals to pass.

BP had asked for permission to revoke two previous shareholder resolutions from 2015 and 2019 that required the energy group to release climate-related data, which the company said had been made redundant thanks to mandatory climate disclosures. It also put forward a resolution to be allowed to hold electronic-only general meetings, which it said would allow more of its shareholders outside the UK to take part. 

The meeting had already sparked controversy after BP excluded a shareholder resolution filed by Dutch activist investor Follow This and a group of pension funds, asking the energy group to set out strategies for maintaining shareholder value if oil and gas demand declines.

Manifold, 63, who became chair last October, said the resolution had not been submitted correctly. “There is no question of anybody blocking anything. If you don’t submit a resolution in compliance with the rules, we are legally bound not to accept it. There are rules we all live life by,” he said. 

BP shareholders backed Manifold as chair on Thursday. But more than 18 per cent of investors voted against his election, after advisory group Glass Lewis raised concerns about governance and recommended that investors vote against him.

Legal & General Investment Management, a top 10 shareholder with a holding of about 1.5 per cent, also said it would vote against him, citing concerns that he was reducing the company’s transparency and making it harder to understand how BP would manage risks in the energy transition.

Manifold was publicly supported, however, by Norway’s oil fund, which holds a roughly 2.7 per cent stake in the company. 

Last year, 24 per cent of investors voted against the re-election of BP’s previous chair Helge Lund as a symbolic protest after he had already announced his departure. Lund in 2024 won backing from 96 per cent of voting shareholders, in a more typical result for a UK board director.

Manifold said that “it was and is the board’s view that it is good governance to bring these types of issues to a meeting like today to debate and discuss them”.

He said the defeated resolutions were put forward “in the context of becoming simpler and more valuable” and were made in response to feedback from shareholders. 

Mark van Baal, chief executive of Follow This, said the defeat over BP’s climate reporting resolution signalled that “shareholders refuse to let BP quietly bury its reporting commitments”. The group is continuing with legal action over BP’s decision to exclude its own proposal.

More than a quarter of shareholders also backed a shareholder resolution calling on BP to justify its capital expenditure on upstream oil and gas, which was filed by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and a group of other investors.

Under UK corporate governance norms, BP will have to consult its shareholders on the issue and report back.