Exxon Mobil shareholders on Wednesday voted down most of all the resolutions that would have supported the company taking action to address climate change.
The votes were taken during a shareholder meeting in Dallas, where a showdown between shareholders over the climate resolutions had been anticipated for weeks.
Investors representing a majority of the company’s $3.5 billion stock-market value voted against almost all of the resolutions related to climate change at the meeting. Those included one that directed the company to report how climate change affects its operation and another supporting December’s international climate deal. The measure that passed would open the door for a climate expert being put on the company’s board of directors.
Exxon had advised shareholders to oppose the resolutions.
CEO Rex Tillerson said at the meeting that the company accepts the scientific findings that manmade climate change is happening. But “the reality is there is no alternative energy source known on the planet or available today to replace the prevalence of fossil fuels in the global economy,” he said. “The world is going to have to continue using fossil fuels, whether they like it or not.”
Chevron was also scheduled to take up similar resolutions at a shareholder meeting it is holding at its California headquarters Wednesday.
