Aware Super to vote against Woodside chair and climate plan
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The news: Aware Super, one of the country's largest superannuation funds, has indicated it will oppose the re-election of Woodside chair Richard Goyder at the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday and also vote against its climate plan.
The numbers: Aware Super is one of a growing number of dissenting institutional investors who have criticised the Woodside board's perceived lack of ambition on emissions reduction. Last week fellow super fund HESTA said it would also vote against Goyder and the climate plan. The AFR reports that three prominent US pension funds - CalSTRS, CalPRS and Florida State Board of Administration - are also opposing the chair and the climate plan.
The context: Woodside has been the target of shareholder activism over its climate plan, which opponents have criticised as inadequate for lacking Scope 3 reduction targets and being overly reliant on offsets. Goyder himself wrote a letter to shareholders via the Australian Securities Exchange following the HESTA comments imploring them to support the plan, against which nearly half of shareholders voted at the company's 2023 AGM.
What they said: “It is our view Woodside Energy has not made sufficient progress on its Climate Transition Action Plan. Our votes against both the re-election of Chair Richard Goyder and the company’s Climate Transition Action Plan and 2023 Progress Report reflect this dissatisfaction.
“This decision has not been taken lightly and is underpinned by our belief that climate change is one of the most significant financial risks to our portfolio over the long term and to our members’ financial future," Aware Super CIO Damian Graham said in a statement.
The source: Aware Super statement
