3 Hit's On The Chin

Macro Perspectives: Thu 27 May 2021

The clean energy agenda landed three heavy blows on the chin of the fossil fuels industry. 

Punch #1: A Dutch court ruled that the oil giant Shell has to cut emissions on a much more aggressive timeline than they had projected. This is a big deal - a Dutch judge is enforcing a company to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement.

Punch #2: At its annual meeting, Chevron shareholders voted in favor "aligning its strategy with emission levels compatible with the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement." This campaign to persuade shareholders on this resolution was run by an activist group called Follow This - whom also had similar wins with ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 shareholders earlier this month.

All of this isn't too surprising, as the big oil giants have already been given the marching orders to transform to renewables, dating back to 2017.

In December of 2017 a group called Climate Action 100+ was formed. This group comprises of every major asset manager and pension fund on the planet and their slogan describes the agenda very clearly: "Global Investors Driving Business Transition." To put it even more simply, this is a coordinated initiative to defund fossil fuels and force energy transformation.

With that, facing the prospects of being frozen out of the capital markets, the industry has been falling into line. The big holdout has been Exxon, they weren't playing ball.

Punch #3: Yesterday, in a proxy vote, shareholders (influenced by a full-on assault by the climate activist powers) voted to shake up the board, placing two members on the board that will push the Paris Climate compliance agenda.

This all sounds like the global energy transformation is going according to (central planners) plan, which it is. But as we've discussed, as global investment in new exploration continues to evaporate under this agenda, there will be considerable pain - we will continue to consume a lot of oil for the foreseeable future, we will just be consuming it at higher and higher prices.