Investors pile climate pressure on Glencore ahead of AGM
A coal-fired power station near Johannesburg, South Africa, April 13, 2023.
Keystone / Kim Ludbrook
Swiss-based commodity trading giant Glencore faces increased pressure to clarify how it will manage its climate change commitments after investors holding more than $500 billion (CHF450 billion) in assets backed a shareholder resolution to be voted on next month.
Nine institutional investors, including Man Group, Scottish Widows and Brunel Pension Partnership, added their weight to calls for more transparency from one of the world’s biggest producers of thermal coal, according to a joint statementExternal link from the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) published on Tuesday.
Managers representing $2.2 trillion in assets late last year asked Glencore to explain how its production and capital expenditure plans aligned with the Paris goals on tackling climate change as part of a shareholder resolution.
Those concerns were not properly addressed in Glencore’s March climate report, according to the ACCR statement. At the 2022 AGM, nearly a quarter of shareholders rejected Glencore’s climate plan.
Zug-based Glencore is one of the world’s largest producers and traders of thermal coal used in power generation. Record prices of the commodity helped to add some $10 billion to its earnings in the six months to June.
Glencore is due to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on May 26 in the Swiss city of Zug.
The demands for more accountability follow Glencore’s proposal to spin off its coal business as part of its $22.5 billion attempted takeover of Canada’s Teck Resources, which raises the issue of future responsibility over coal emissions should the deal goal through.
Former Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said in 2020 the company would run down its coal mines and would not replace them.
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