AGL climate transition action plan opposed by 31% of shareholder votes
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More news: AGL's 2025 climate transition action plan has passed a shareholder vote despite 30.8% of votes cast against it. This was a similar level of opposition to its 2022 plan.
The final results, released to the exchange after the annual general meeting, flagged that more than 201 million of the votes cast were in favour (69.2%), while more than 89.5 million of the votes cast were in opposition (30.8%). A further 47.6 million votes were abstained.
Resolutions to elect Elizabeth Donaghey (99.42%) as a director, re-elect John Pollaers (93.08%) and Mark Twindell (98.68%), and appoint PwC as auditors (99.64%) were passed with an overwhelmingly majority.
Resolutions for the remuneration report (98.53%) and to long-term incentive scheme benefits to CEO Damien Nicks (98.07%) also passed by similar margins.
Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures voted against AGL climate plan
More news: Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok Ventures voted against AGL's 2025 Climate Transition Action Plan, arguing that it "remains largely unchanged from what was released in 2022".
Shareholders backed the plan at AGL's 2025 annual general meeting despite about a third of votes being cast in opposition.
Grok said the 2025 plan is only an "incremental improvement" on the version from 2022, but remains "confident in AGL's overall strategic direction and its potential to lead Australia's energy transition with purpose and impact".
They also argued that the plan is not aligned with the Paris Agreement target of keeping global temperature gains to 1.5 degrees below pre-industrial levels by 2050, and is instead aligned with "a stated 1.8 degree trajectory".
What they said: "AGL is uniquely positioned to help lead Australia’s energy transition and shareholders deserve to see a plan that demonstrates leadership and progression — particularly in accelerating renewable generation and battery storage capacity, which the energy market critically requires," Grok said in a statement.
The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility's (ACCR's) executive director Brynn O'Brien said: “Nearly 31% of shareholders voted against AGL’s Climate Transition Action Plan today, matching the vote against the plan the company presented in 2022".
“This sends an unambiguous signal to AGL’s board and executives that the company needs to do more to drive the energy transition. AGL must move quickly to deliver real emissions cuts and a more compelling strategy that seizes the opportunities of the energy transition," O'Brien added.
“AGL’s plan, which proposes no further reductions in gas emissions for the next decade, gives little confidence that company leadership is up for making the hard choices surrounding gas and its increasingly unreliable coal assets."
AGL shareholders back climate transition plan despite opposition
The news: AGL Energy shareholders have backed the company’s new climate transition action plan through a vote at the energy company’s 2025 annual general meeting, despite opposition from proxy adviser ISS Sustainability Advisory Services and activist shareholder group the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.
The numbers: The Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP) was backed by 198.8 million votes while more than 89.4 million votes, about a third, were against the plan.
At the time of the meeting more than 1.9 million votes remained open and 1.1 million votes were to be voted at the chair’s discretion.
At 1:17pm AEST, shares in AGL had slipped 0.6% to $9.12.
The context: At the opening of the annual general meeting AGL chair Miles George said the plan increased the FY30 target for new renewable and firming capacity and introduced a new grid-scale battery specific target.
George also said the company had "bolstered" its targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction on FY19 levels and introduced a scope 3 emissions reduction target.
Proxy adviser ISS argued that AGL "only partially" discloses its mid-term climate targets and did not increase its ambition from previously announced plans to invest in 13 GW of renewables and firming capacity as well as exiting coal-fired power generation with the closure of Bayswater power station by 2033 and Loy Yang A by 2035.
A spokesperson for Mike Cannon-Brookes' Grok ventures did not comment on how the billionaire intended to vote, although he has previously expressed concerns about the plan.
Industry super fund HESTA said on Thursday it intended to back the climate plan despite being “concerned by the limited ambition for switching gas customers proactively to electricity” and a lack of detail on how the scope 3 target would be met.
AGL’s last CTAP was passed in 2022 despite a similar lack of support from nearly a third of shareholders.
The Financial Review reported on Thursday that the three largest proxy advisors Institutional Shareholder Services, CGI Glass Lewis and Ownership Matters recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the plan.
The sources: ASX, ASX, AGL AGM figures, Grok Ventures media release, ACCR media release, The Australian Financial Review, The Australian Financial Review
