QBE shareholders have rallied behind a resolution pushing for greater transparency around its investments in oil and gas projects, despite management’s attempts to convince them to block the resolution.
The resolution, which called for reporting for short, medium and long-term targets to reduce QBE’s investments and underwriting to oil and gas assets, was raised by investor activist group Market Forces at the company’s general meeting last week.
Thirteen percent of shareholders, including fund managers Australian Ethical, Future Super and VicSuper, approved the proposal.
Last year, investor activists put forward a similar resolution, pushing QBE to later commit to phasing out thermal coal project underwriting by 2030.
“We’ve continued to engage investors on the importance in dealing with climate risk across all fossil fuels, not just thermal coal,” said Pablo Brait, Market Forces campaigner, in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.
“And considering the impacts of the climate crisis are becoming more and more obvious to everyone, including investors, we’re seeing a realisation that oil and gas needs to be dealt with in a very similar way to thermal coal,” he said.
QBE chairman Michael Wilkins said the company was already active on addressing climate change and reported portfolio-wide climate risks.
“Climate change is a material risk for QBE and we believe we must play a part in the global response to this challenge,” he said. “We support the objectives of the Paris Agreement and we have made a number of important changes within our business to limit our own environmental impact.”
However, Australian Ethical still stressed the need for a detailed reporting on the companies QBE works with. The superannuation fund manager, which has $25m worth of investments in QBE, threatened to sell its shares if the insurer did not make a move towards transparency.
QBE chief executive Pat Regan said the company cut international travel by 20% last year to limit aviation-related emissions and the coronavirus pandemic had seen a continuation of this trend.
He said the travel reductions “will be set to stay” and that these are in line with the company’s efforts to minimise climate change.
