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' |
"We are bemused at this tactic," said the spokesperson, Stephanie Tunmore. "The company has applied the strictest interpretation of one of the most technical points of law in an attempt to slam the shutters on legitimate debate."
"We have redrafted the resolution and will be submitting it again," she said. "We have been given a deadline of March 8 and we hope the company will be more reasonable about it this time."
A BP spokesperson said the company was not trying to quash debate, but merely wanted to ensure that the lobby groups did not take over what is traditionally an occasion for shareholders to discuss all ranges of issues with board directors.
"Last year it was one resolution but this time there are four," the spokesperson said. "We have got to get it right.
"We are not trying to stop the debate at all. We just want to make sure everybody is on an equal footing," he said.
The spat highlights the reluctance of oil majors to accept criticism of their indifference to environmental problems at a time when climate change and global warming are increasing pressure for a fresh approach.
A senior UN official told a recent London conference on oil and the environment that the energy industry had to wake up to the calls for a change in corporate strategy.
"Ask your colleagues to take their heads out of the sand," said Jacqueline Aloisi de Lardarel, head of the UN Environment Programme.
"The public is asking for good management of natural resources and reduction of pollution," she added. "They are demanding a life cycle approach, asking for closed loops for materials and energy.
"In your field there is plenty of energy supply but the earth cannot absorb the emissions resulting from the use of that energy supply," she said.
Tunmore said that corporate giants were going to have to get used to so-called social investors, particularly as public opinion becomes more aware of the links between climate change and carbon emissions.
"Investors are slowly beginning to link what is happening with the climate to the cause - which is fossil fuel burning," she said. - Sapa-AFP
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