JUST SHARE, the non-profit shareholder activist group, has blamed Sasol, the fossil fuel company, whose operations include Secunda, the world’s biggest single-point source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, for refusing to table the sixth shareholder-proposed resolution filed with the company in five consecutive years.
Robyn Hugo, Just Share’s director for Climate Change Engagement, said yesterday that it was difficult to understand why Sasol continued to resist tabling shareholder-proposed resolutions that would allow shareholders to vote on improved disclosure, particularly when such resolutions were not only non-binding, but made requests for information that Sasol says it was already planning to provide. Hugo said it was clear from this history that Sasol’s refusals were not grounded in a consistent application of the law, nor in sound principles of corporate governance.
“Rather, the company appears to have set out, in every instance, to find reasons to prevent its shareholders from having an opportunity to vote on any resolutions other than those tabled by Sasol itself. This is not only contrary to South African law, but also contrary to the position of hundreds of other listed companies across the globe, including dozens of fossil fuel companies, which every year put shareholder-proposed resolutions on their ballots,” said Hugo.
Hugo said Sasol’s reasons for refusing to table shareholder-proposed resolutions included that the resolution was filed too late or the co-filing shareholders sought to “micro-manage” the company.
Hugo argued this approach was at odds with the company’s claim, in its updated emission reduction plan as released at last month’s Capital Markets Day, that Sasol recognises that “sound partnerships with [its] stakeholders are critical to the success of Sasol’s decarbonisation drive, which is central to the strategy and future of the company.
“At a time of increasing global awareness of the unprecedented scale and speed of change required to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, and of the dangerous effects of corporate lobbying against climate action, transparency and good governance from the world’s biggest polluters are crucial if they are to maintain credibility,” she said.
Sasol said last month it was stepping up its 2030, scope 1 and 2 GHG gas emission reduction target, from an initial 10 percent for its South African operations, announced last year, to 30 percent for our Energy and Chemicals businesses, off a 2017 baseline.
In a letter responding to Hugo, Sasol’s group company secretary, Michelle du Toit stressed the company recognised that sound partnerships with its stakeholders were critical to the success of Sasol’s decarbonisation drive, which was central to the strategy and future of the company.
“In this spirit, we will again reach out to you with the objective of reinforcing appropriate collaboration with you, as with our other stakeholders, to minimise opportunities for misunderstanding and conjecture,” she said.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE