Methane – Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investing

Making progress on methane

December 18, 2023December 18, 2023Natalie Wasek

The United Nations Climate Summit (COP28), which took place in Dubai, recently ended with a monumental report that still falls short of necessary progress. World leaders, climate experts, at least 1,300 fossil fuel lobbyists, and one CEO of a large fossil fuel company attended the meetings. ExxonMobil CEO, Robert Woods, attended COP28, marking the first time the CEO of a large fossil fuel company attended the meetings. And sure, while Woods said the conversations “put way too much emphasis on getting rid of fossil fuels, oil and gas” and not enough on “dealing with the emissions associated with them,” he at least was still part of the discussions.

The long-awaited and contested COP report recognizes the need for a transition “away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

For the first time fossil fuels were explicitly discussed and named as a cause to the climate crisis. While the report’s vague language requires more work to ensure its potential, Mindy Lubber, CEO of Ceres, sums it up nicely:

The agreement comes at an urgent moment. Extreme weather and other climate-related catastrophes are already causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage each year. The world is at severe risk of far greater challenges as we are on track to miss the 2030 goals of the Paris Agreement and achieve a zero emissions economy in time to prevent catastrophic climate change. At the same time, governments, businesses, and investors have a monumental opportunity to invest in secure, affordable, and reliable clean energy technology that brings enormous economic benefits and job growth.

In addition to the climate talks at COP, other commitments concerning Methane Emissions recently showed some progress.

Methane, a highly potent climate pollutant, that is responsible for approximately one-third of current warming resulting from human activities. While ExxonMobil, the world’s second largest oil refiner, reported making great progress on its methane emissions reduction, the company was only doing so with estimated emissions, not direct measurements. Without measured data, studies have shown that companies may misallocate capital to less impactful and less cost-effective mitigation opportunities.

Immediately before COP 28 ExxonMobil, announced that it was joining OGMP 2.0, the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership. This came as shocking and exciting news after last proxy season. The Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, along with co-filers Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, Congregation des Soeurs des Saints Noms de Jesus et de Marie, and Dana Investment Advisors filed a resolution at ExxonMobil asking the company to issue a report analyzing the reliability of its methane emission disclosures. While ExxonMobil’s opposition to the resolution highlighted their participation in OGCI, Global Methane Partnership, and legal hurdles, the resolution garnered an impressive 36% vote.

This announcement of Exxon joining OGMP 2.0 is a huge step forward because under OGMP reporting, better-quality emissions data allows operators to accurately understand and characterize methane emissions from their assets, informing a more effective mitigation strategy.

In addition to ExxonMobil and others joining OGMP in the past few weeks, the EPA released its new methane standards which should help reduce methane emissions. EDF reported on the new rules and how they will help OGMP members comply. There’s been other methane regulation advancements in the EU, China, Australia, and Canada as well.

The COP agreement, Methane regulation, and hopefully new SEC climate disclosure rules in 2024, there is a lot of forward momentum in the climate world. What is needed now is continued corporate action and more climate policy nationally and internationally.

SGI members are continuing engagement on climate crisis issues such as GHG emissions, methane, the Just Transition, science based targets and climate transition action plans, as well as climate lobbying.

There’s still much more work to be done. Next year’s COP is planned to be held in Azerbaijan, one of the birthplaces of the oil industry.

Climate Change is now a Climate Crisis

June 28, 2019November 7, 2019Chris Cox

By Frank Sherman

Recently, we took time to reflect on another eventful engagement season and to chart the strategic direction for the coming year.

Looking back at the 2019 engagement season and more than one-hundred climate engagements by ICCR members, we observe:

In a notable exception, the electricity generation sector is at a decarbonization tipping point driven by cheaper renewable energy, growing industrial and public demand, and changing public opinion. Securitization laws, distributed energy resources (e.g. rooftop solar) and community solar projects are growing in popularity. The “electrification of everything” shows promise of demand growth, energy savings and environmental sustainability. A growing number of utility companies (nine, according to NRDC) have followed Xcel’s lead by committing to carbon-neutral electricity production by 2050 or sooner.
In the face of regulatory rollbacks, natural gas production and distribution companies are committing to voluntary methane leakage reduction targets to salvage the ‘bridge-fuel’ story. With 6000 mid- and small-scale producers, the majors are now advocating for a stronger regulatory regime! Investors have been successful in tying support for meaningful regulation to reputational risk.
As investors shifted from demanding scenario assessments to Paris-compliant business plans, U.S. oil & gas companies continued to defend their business-as-usual business model while their European counterparts broke rank. A BP supported climate resolution obtained a 99+% vote while Shell agreed to set GHG reduction targets for their products as well as their operations. In contrast, CA100+ investors at Exxon Mobil recommended voting against the Board after the company omitted their GHG reduction target proposal.
With noted exceptions (Wells Fargo and Goldman), large financial companies are starting to assess climate risk in their portfolios. Mid-cap companies were slower to respond to our letter campaign, largely it seems, due to limited capacity to conduct broad risk assessment. Investors will connect them with tools they can use to do a straightforward climate footprint analysis.
Political spending and lobbying resolution votes, several of which emphasized climate change, increased to 31%.
Engagements calling for science based (GHG reduction) targets made slow progress in contrast to the scientific community call for more urgent action.

Impacting the climate science and changing political landscape, 2018 was the wettest year on record while wildfires in California resulted in the first climate change bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric. Global carbon emissions reached a record, and the U.S. power sector reversed its’ multi-year decline. The IPCC special report warned that countries’ pledges to reduce their emissions are not in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Some are responding to the crisis – 80 countries are planning to increase their climate pledges ahead of schedule. The UK is the first member of the G7 to legislate net zero emissions, joining Finland and Costa Rica.

The 4th U.S. National Climate Assessment Report starkly warns of risks to the U.S. economy while the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks are poised to increase GHG emissions significantly. Public opinion is finally shifting with over 70% of Americans saying climate change is a reality, with most believing human activity is primarily responsible. Republican millennials support a carbon tax 7-to-1 with 85% stating that the Republican position on climate change is hurting the party. The Midterm elections flipped the House of Representatives and 7 state governorships to Democrats. Twenty-one states have now joined the U.S. Climate Alliance committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. Four states (CA, WA, HI, NM) and Puerto Rico have targeted 100% clean energy by 2050 or sooner, with nine additional states (IL, MA, MI, MN, MS, NC, NY, PA, WI) proposing similar legislation. The Green New Deal resolution changed the conversation on Capitol Hill and the Climate Action Now Act put the House on record as supporting the Paris Accord.

Financial markets are not immune to this crisis. Munich Re predicts climate change will price regions out of insurance. The broad acceptance of the TCFD guidelines increases pressure on companies to improve disclosure.

Considering the broader investor landscape and NGO campaigns, the CA100+ global initiative focused on large emitters and led by large asset managers, pension funds, and sovereign funds. Some ICCR members participate in the CA100+ teams while others continue parallel engagements to reinforce the message. Still others are shifting focus to mid-cap companies. We believe that more coordination is needed to increase effectiveness.

Efforts to make methane emissions reduction targets the norm have been limited to the oil & gas majors and larger natural gas producers. The EPA’s proposed rollback of the New Source Performance Standards regulating oil and gas emissions will further erode the regulatory floor, especially as the EPA now proposes to deregulate methane. We look forward to publication of an EDF study on methane measurement and mitigation and Union of Concerned Scientists has formed a working group to study CCS.

Efforts towards a Just Transition have born fruit as investors and companies have a growing awareness of the unintended, negative consequences that decarbonization has on people. We made a good start with last October’s investor statement, representing $3.7 trillion in assets, and the CA100+ framework, which includes just transition questions; however, most companies lack the policies and practices to address these issues. Addressing the needs of employees, customers and local communities will accelerate transition rather than deter it.

Recalling Fr. Mike Crosby’s prophetic statement, “We are at a Kairos moment,” we look forward to developing with our allies a new strategy statement regarding future engagement of the oil & gas sector to help investors differentiate between fossil fuel companies making progress and those protecting business-as-usual models. Rollout will be stepwise with more guidance forthcoming. Finally, alongside our allies, we have reviewed a draft climate change principles which reflect an increased urgency and stepped up action.

Finally, let us turn to our 2020 engagement strategy. Given our progress in recent years within the electric utility sector, we expect to expand engagements further into mid-cap companies and push for net-zero carbon targets. We will collaborate with NGO’s and other partners to engage the state utility commissions and give input on the Green New Deal. ICCR is planning a multi-stakeholder Roundtable in December to discuss the challenges of decarbonization and promote a just transition.

Investors engaging the financial sector are promoting a shift from simply assessing climate change risk to their own operations to assessing the climate-related risk they facilitate through their lending and underwriting. Coordinating with the Climate Safe Lending Initiative, they plan to engage the top five U.S. banks and some regional banks in 2020 on climate risk. Investors will ask banks to follow the TCFD recommendations, complete a climate impact assessment, pledge no new fossil fuel investments, and ultimately, decarbonize their portfolio (Banking on Climate Change: Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card 2019). Planned for early September, an investor brief and webinar will educate interested investors. As well, we will ask smaller banks to join the Platform Carbon Accounting Framework to calculate their carbon footprint.

Our methane work will continue to promote best practices in measurement and management to minimize methane leakage. We plan to engage companies on including their “non-operated assets” (i.e. joint ventures) in their methane targets, and step up engagement of distributors and retailers to source “sustainably produced” natural gas. At the same time, we recognize that natural gas can no longer be viewed as a “bridge fuel” to clean energy and agree that no new gas power plants can be justified given the climate crisis. On the other hand, replacing industrial and residential uses of natural gas remains a challenge.

It is clear that we recognize the increased urgency and need to step-up our demands. Within ICCR, we reflect this by the change to our Program name from Climate Change to Climate Crisis. This can no longer be considered a gradual change. We are in crisis mode so we need to respond differently!

Proposed Rollback of Methane Regulations Threatens Long-term Viability of Oil and Gas Sector

December 5, 2018Chris Cox

SGI joined a group of investors in a letter sent to oil and gas companies to warn against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rollback of the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), a regulation the investors say is critical to the long-term viability of the oil and gas sector in the energy transition already underway.

Sent to 30 companies on behalf of 61 investor signatories representing US$1.9 trillion in assets under management, the letter calls upon the companies to offer public support for continued EPA regulation of methane emissions and to oppose the elimination of direct regulation of methane emissions.

More than 610 different companies accounted for 50% of U.S. oil and gas production in 2017. While most of the companies receiving the letter have responded positively to investor engagement on methane management, there are hundreds of companies that are not managing methane emissions carefully, which threatens the reputation of natural gas as a ‘cleaner’ fossil fuel. A study earlier this year in the journal Science estimated that in the U.S., methane equivalent to 2.3 percent of all the natural gas produced in the nation leaks into the atmosphere during the production, processing and transportation of oil and gas every year.

Strong and fair methane regulations, which require companies to conduct regular inspections for leaks and report on their methane management efforts, create a more stable environment by leveling the playing field among U.S. oil and gas companies. As the U.S. is a net exporter of natural gas, and as an increasing number of countries adopt legislation and other policies to address climate change, sound methane regulation preserves the industry’s global competitiveness. According to the recent IPCC report, countries won’t be able to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, considered by some scientists and policymakers to be the “safe” limit of climate change, without immediate and rapid reductions in a wide range of greenhouse gases, including methane.

In 2015, ICCR launched a concerted methane campaign with the goal of engaging primarily U.S. companies across the natural gas value chain on improving disclosure, reducing emissions and reporting critical information on methane management efforts, such as leak detection and repair (LDAR). If the EPA is successful in rolling back the NSPS, LDAR, currently one of the most cost-effective ways to curb dangerous methane emissions, will be significantly weakened which, investors say, benefits no one.

Apart from publicly declaring their support for the NSPS Rule, we ask companies to submit comments to the EPA regarding the benefits of industry-wide methane regulation by December 17th.

“The companies receiving the letter are large producers representing 35% of U.S. oil and gas production,” said Rob Fohr of the Presbyterian Church, USA. “Our hope is to convince these more influential companies to use their voices in support of sensible and cost-effective methane regulation to bring along the entire industry and mitigate the risk of an unregulated market.”

A link to the investor letter and signatories as well as a list of the companies receiving the letter can be found at this link. The complete ICCR press release can be found here. Bloomberg covered the letter in an article here.