Publication Woodside 2023 director re-elections and 2022 Climate Report

A comprehensive assessment of Woodside’s 2022 Climate Report and the board’s lack of responsiveness to shareholder climate votes.

28th March 2023

ACCR has been engaging with Woodside on climate change issues for many years. In 2020, 50% of Woodside’s shareholders voted for an ACCR resolution asking the company to align scope 1 and 3 targets, remuneration and capital allocation with the Paris Agreement. In 2022, Woodside received the largest vote (49%) against its 2021 Climate Action Transition Plan of any company since the Say on Climate mechanism was introduced.

This research presentation provides information for investors on ACCR’s governance concerns regarding the Woodside board’s lack of responsiveness to shareholders on these major climate votes over the last three years. These governance concerns are the basis for ACCR, Vision Super and Betashares’ filing of members’ statements with Woodside on the re-election of Ian Macfarlane, Larry Archibald and Swee Chen Goh. It is ACCR’s intention to vote against all three directors.

In addition, the presentation provides a comprehensive assessment of Woodside’s 2022 Climate Report, which was an opportunity for Woodside to respond to investor concerns over the last three years, yet no substantive changes have been made.

Key issues that are assessed include:

Woodside’s framing of the role of gas in a 1.5C pathway, along with its efforts to discredit the conclusions of the IEANZE scenario. Importantly, IPCC scenarios are not statements on feasibility whereas the IEA selected the NZE pathway as the “most technically feasible, cost-effective and socially acceptable” Paris-aligned scenario.
Woodside’s failure to set scope 3 targets and its disingenuous reasoning why, causing it to lag behind peers.
The company’s continued overreliance on offsets to meet its insufficient scope 1 target
The company’s scenario analysis, which demonstrates that the IEANZE scenario would have a 70% impact upon value
The $US5 billion New Energy target, which importantly does not lead to a reduction in scope 3 emissions unless it is accompanied by a curtailment of fossil fuel developments

Due to investor interest, ACCR has also compiled a summary of our recent engagements with Woodside, which can be accessed here.

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