London - Oil giant BP is struggling to shake off accusations that it is stifling discussion of its environmental and human rights policies, in a furious row that goes to the heart of the climate change debate.
Britain's largest company admitted that it had sought to prevent lobby groups who have the support of its shareholders from debating resolutions on the environment and on human rights at a BP annual general meeting next month.
The lobby groups, who include Greenpeace and the Free Tibet Campaign, accused BP of a "disregard and disrespect for its shareholders," while an independent corporate governance advisory body, PIRC, said the move "smacks of corporate arrogance."
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"BP presents itself as a socially responsible company ... and yet it doesn't seem to want to facilitate shareholder debate on this sort of important issue," PIRC research director Stuart Bell said.
'Disregard and disrespect for its shareholders' The lobby groups, who claim to represent hundreds of shareholders with millions of shares, want to discuss with BP at an April 19 AGM its policies on four key issues: climate change, oil exploration in the Arctic, human rights and its investment in a Chinese company building a gas pipeline across Tibet.
The critical resolutions were expected to cause discomfort to board members, particularly when BP has just reported record annual profits of $14,2-billion (about R) - more than $400 per second.
But BP rejected the resolutions as invalid and imprecise and said they failed to meet the requirements of corporate law.
Last year, Greenpeace successfully raised an environmental issue against drilling in the Arctic at a similar shareholders meeting, garnering support from 13 percent of shareholders.
A Greenpeace spokesperson said that having set this precedent, BP could not now turn round and stop resolutions from being raised.
'Ask your colleagues to take their heads out of the sand'
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