Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Instead of say investing in green energy startups and displacing oil with a better product, business guru Jeroen Kraaijenbrink thinks activists should buy shares so they can mess with big oil companies.
Jan 3, 2022,09:00am EST
Want To Stop Climate Change? Buy Big Oil Stock
Jeroen Kraaijenbrink
Contributor Leadership Strategy
I Help Companies Discover, Formulate And Execute StrategyIn an age in which stock trading is no longer reserved to Wall-Street and a climate crisis is becoming a reality, sustainability-driven shareholder activism was bound to happen. And we see it happening, with increasing impact—especially in Big Oil, responsible for the largest share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Long has the traditional shareholder model of corporations been a source of criticism, especially from a sustainability perspective. As the criticism goes, shareholders have no interest in the long-term health of a company, and most certainly not in anything that concerns the world outside the corporation—like the health of our planet and its population.
But, this may be changing. Paradoxically, it may be this very same traditional shareholder model that can be key to fight climate change, achieve COP26 ambitions, and realize UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. I spoke to Mark van Baal, founder of activist shareholder group Follow This, to discuss the merits and perils of shareholder activism, in particular with respect to climate change and Big Oil.
How Follow This Fights The Battle Against Climate Change
In Van Baal’s words, Follow This is “a group of over 8,000 green shareholders in oil and gas companies.” Their goal? “To get oil companies to set clear Scope 3 ambitions and targets. This means that they do not only take responsibility for their own emissions, also called Scope 1 and 2, but for all emissions in the value chain. This includes emissions caused by the products made from oil, transport, and so on. Since oil companies are not doing this on their own, they need an extra stimulus and support to get such ambitions and targets on the agenda to meet the Paris climate agreement.”
Their approach is as simple as it is effective. Their impact has already been made apparent at multiple Big Oil names, turning these corporations in the right direction when it comes to climate change. “Thanks to the votes of institutional investors for the Follow This climate resolutions, Shell, Equinor, BP, Phillips 66, and Chevron have reluctantly set climate ambitions covering Scope 3 already.” And, as Follow This announced in their recent investor briefing, they will file no less than eight climate resolutions in 2022, at Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Occidental Petroleum, ExxonMobil, and Marathon Petroleum.
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Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeroenkraaijenbrink/2022/01/03/want-to-stop-climate-change-buy-big-oil-stock/
In my opinion such wrecking tactics are evidence that greens know they can’t produce a viable alternative to fossil fuel.
If a green startup created an economically competitive technology for say producing gasoline out of thin air, using a solar reactor or nuclear fusion or whatever, oil companies would be all over it. Not to suppress it, but to exploit it, by buying the patent and using it against their competitors.
Oil companies have no loyalty to drilling for oil – they just want to make money, bigger bonuses for executives.
The proof – when crude oil became really expensive in 2009, executives started dusting off the old NAZI coal to oil process.
The NAZIs pretty much ran their entire wartime economy on coal, because they didn’t have access to big oil fields.
The NAZIs weren’t happy with coal to oil, they were desperate for direct access to oil. One of the reasons Hitler invaded Russia is he wanted to seize the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus. Although the coal to oil process works, it is more difficult and expensive than directly processing crude oil, which put the NAZI forces at a logistical disadvantage through much of the war.
But the original plans for the NAZI production scale coal to oil process are still on file, in the research departments of every oil company, waiting to be dusted off next time there is a sustained oil price spike.
My point is, producing product is the goal of oil executives. They don’t care whether the product comes from crude oil, biofuel, coal, or thin air and a nuclear reactor, their core goal is keeping their well paid jobs, along with a big fat executive bonus from all the profit their business units make.
If greens had any economically viable ideas to contribute, they wouldn’t need such dirty tactics, like buying oil company shares and trying to mess with them. They could just start their own green energy company, and sweep the field with their superior product.
Or else someone else will…..
Private equity lines up for coal ‘bonanza’ left by public miners – MINING.COM
They had better be very careful, the same tactic could be used against Wind Generation Manufacturers as well as Solar Panel Manufacturers. Although the latter tend to self destruct anyway
And China would allow that?
Besides, how many Greens are stupid enough to invest in something and then kill their own interests?
Founder and former leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown, complained loudly when an announcement was made that a wind turbine installation was planned for hills near his home in Tasmania.
In 2019 Bob and Comrades drove to North Queensland to protest about coal mining and were shocked when locals in towns near the coal fields protested and told the Greens to leave, shopkeepers refused to serve them.
Is this a woke up call for the young executives and their board members in publicly listed companies now trying hard to display virtue signalling by divestment of shareholding in fossil fuel resources businesses?
Including bankers.
Face it, the green blob is largely an assemblage of crackpots, innumerates and economic illiterates.
The nutty ideas they perpetually believe and promote reflect their third-rate education and defective judgement.
Eric, here’s an actual phone call I got as CEO and Director of a uranium exploration company, which was a publicly traded stock company: caller: I am a shareholder and I want to lodge an objection to the company pushing uranium. What do you think about that? Me: Buy enough shares to have control of the company and call me back.
What a waste of your time Ron!
Heck, if they did that the greenies might start receiving dividend checks and take an active interest in the success of the company. 😉
Heck, the minute they buy oil company stock they automatically become corporate shills and nothing they say or do has any credibility. At least that’s how it works for everyone else.
I’ll betcha Mann owns a lot of oil stock.
Ron, you didn’t state how long ago this occurred but, I have seen leftist proposals make it into corporate voting issues for decades. It may be that the guy you got the call from was not actually a stockholder because he could have that proposal voted on by all stockholders if he followed the corporate bylaws. Either that or he was lazy, dumb, incompetent, or a combination of those conditions.
Van Baal (appropriately named person) is not doing anything new, just more openly stated.
2008.
As you probably know Ron the activists including union superannuation fund management buy shares and then try to influence company directors and executives. It annoys me that so many custodians of shareholders assets are taken in by the lobby groups.
And the tiny activist groups lobby advertisers to stop advertising with conservative media businesses and target presenters who expose the globalism and agendas.
Many of us were concerned about unions and super funds when the Keating Labor Government introduced the Superannuation Guarantee Levy soon after deregulating the banking and finance sector. And noting what the more recent Royal Commission discovered about how fund members have been subjected to fraudulent behaviour resulting in fees for services not provided, etc.
Could make some interesting lawsuits with the other owners whose interests they are damaging.
Start with the nonprofit ringleaders that instigate and orchestrate these efforts.
Civil RICO in the US has some serious penalties, and really should be used against the illegal activities of the green blob.
Larry Fink of BlackRock and Jeremy Grantham of GMO (f/k/a Grantham Mayo Otterloo) are richly deserving of retribution for the damage their crackpot ESG policies have done to their shareholders, their investee companies, their countries and society as a whole.
Leaves the field wide open to privately owned companies who would avoid the stock exchange like the plague.
Sure, the privately held companies can buy up all the divested interests from fools who want to look like the naked king.
Owning a couple of shares may be enough to introduce nonsense proposals for the rest of the shareholders to shoot down. None of these proposals will pass until the “activists” control a majority of shares.
MarkW, You’re right about needing a lot of shares to actually register an effective complaint. The above mentioned uranium exploration company had an Annual Shareholders/Directors Meeting, with several activists, each holding 10 shares, attending. So, the company Chief Legal Counsel and Director, reading the Directors review and recommendations, was several times interrupted by the activists shouting, which Director said “sensing no opposition, I continue…”.
Forbes, once a bastion of libertarian conservatism, is now a bag of leftish shit.
I’ve noticed that many times. Indeed, what did happen? I enjoyed both Forbes and TIME in the 1960s and 1970s. One went from conservative to liberal and the other from left to loony tune radicalized left.
They were bought out by “investors”. Same thing happened with the Orange County Register.
I’ve looked at their YouTube channel- loaded with what you said.
As a parallel story about activists / disrupters wanting a business to succumb to their selfish demands, I recall the “Australian Waterfront Wars” in the 1980s where the waterside workers union bosses wanted to stop shipping containers movements being automated for better productivity.
After a drawn out industrial dispute, Chris Corrigan, the owner of one of the largest waterfront operators – Patricks Stevedoring – offered to sell the company to the waterside workers union for $1.
Confronted with a “p1ss-or-get-off-the-pot” challenge, the union bosses caved in, and the productivity changes were instituted, delivering faster & cheaper cargo movements at the docks, with widespread benefits for the whole of Australia.
And now in 2022 the Labor Opposition Leader claims that a government he led would buy a fleet of cargo ships.
It was the Union Movement interference and demands that resulted in ships flying The Australian Flag being registered overseas to escape the industrial relations minefield here and even then unions have attempted to impose Australian Industrial Relations legislation on foreign ship owners on behalf of foreign crews.
Australia is no longer a competitive country for most manufacturers, unionism is a significant deterrent along with poor work practises and other factors mostly government imposed.
Last but by no means least waterside unions sabotaged Australia’s past wartime deployments many times including during the Vietnam War.
And now Union controlled Labor promises a shipping fleet government/taxpayer owned?
This is what’s called a “hail Mary” in USA football.
The reason that NPR and most of the mainstream media has studiously avoided reporting the gargantuan failure of solar and wind electricity generation in Europe is to avoid embarrassing itself over its two-decade long promotion and advocacy of the “Catastrophic/dangerous, CO2-driven anthropogenic global warming/climate change” CONJECTURE.
The media’s intentional and deliberate broadcast of climate misinformation has helped put millions of Europeans at risk of death from hypothermia.
Failure never deters the Left when the ideas can be rebranded with a clever name change.
They just claim we need more. “Our wind power is killing people? We just need to wind power harder!”
I’ve been around BIG WIND before and believe me the stench is horrendous
I suspect it is motivated by the fact that such promotion is their do or die purpose. They no longer have anything else to offer.
The truth is that van Baal’s “Follow This” must show some success to survive. Since green investments are a failure, he invited Jeroen Kraaijenbrink to justify some good investments.
Last year, Big Oil’s “dirty” shares produced an average profit of 40%.
It is not politically correct to talk about the profit of green stocks.
I am curious to know if van Baal has also invested in pharmaceuticals. Pfizer or Moderna?
The left’s main profits come through government manipulation of markets.
How about applying in reverse? Buy controlling shares in public renewable Companies and demand they become O&G or nuclear energy producers because they are more profitable forms of energy!
That could be fun!
I’d be nervous of losing money.
Unless that was the intent in the first place. Buy all of the shares and shut the company. (lol)
Wait,what happened to “divest in oil”? First they’re for something, then against. We need a score card to keep up with the Warmunists. They are all over the map. Sheesh.
If you contradict yourself, you are bound to be right about have the time. Unless discussing quantum mechanics.
I recently bought shares of an oil company and also shares of a coal company, but not for the reasons stated in this article. It is my belief that as the politicians start enforcing their draconian anti-fossil fuel policies the people will realize that we need fossil fuels for survival. Going without heat and gasoline and electricity or paying sky high prices for them will be a wake up call for the people. When they realize that the tales of doom forecast by the left wing climate alarmists have not materialized they will be more than happy to dump the green energy policies. They will understand that rather than demonizing fossil fuels we should be thankful we have them. That will lead to more mining and drilling and fracking. That’s good news for fossil fuel companies and will increase share prices.
( I hope)
I believe that it’s more likely that production will drop dramatically. Then as green fantasies are proven to be fantasies, demand will necessarily sky-rocket. Then you can make serious profits, as long as you kept producing while others stopped.
I do not have faith that ‘people’ will ever realize that the tales of doom are false. If they were smart enough to figure it out, they would have figured it out already. When normal weather events are proof of climate change, how can it ever be disproved?
Same as always for many thousands of years
I have to ad a word of caution to anyone thinking of using my post for investing advice. There is a special whammy in the universe that works against my stock picks: When I buy a stock it goes down and when I sell it goes up. So beware.
Oil & ICVs are so yesterday, electric is the way to go down.
“Mercedes-Benz says it has designed an electric car capable of travelling more than 600 miles on a single charge, about three times the average range of most rechargeable vehicles. The German carmaker said its Vision EQXX prototype consumes less than 10 kilowatt hours of power per 100km due to sleeker design, greater efficiency and higher density batteries.”
“higher density batteries” more bang for your dollar or is it euro when things go wrong.
Must admit sounds impressive if true and it’s going to give Tesla run for the money.
Yes, at the price-point most of us consider absurd. And are those higher-denisty batteries fireproof? Are those batteries replaceable at and-of-life for a reasonable amount of money?
and, per the logic of Jeroen Kraaijenbrink , Mercedes Benz needs to be responsible for all down chain emissions that are associated with the product.
So, if it uses electricity that is produced from natural fuels (fossil fuels), then the Mercedes stockholders should mitigate the perceived harm.
When you’re making a few billion per year, why would you care?
Improvements in batteries and electric motors are happening. One only has to read the available literature. Over the next 2 years there will be many introductions and major Tesla competitors. In 10 years EVs will be amazing automobiles.
Neither the climate nor I care.
Agreed. I don’t care whether EVs thrive or wither on the vine, as long as market forces, not government officials, pick the winners.
I care. I care because of the damage to the environment caused by the extraction of raw materials required to realize the Wet Green Dream. I care because of the damage inflicted on the environment the through destruction of the planet through windmills, solar panels, batteries and their eventual disposal.
The planet does not care in the least but the people being harmed are going to care — if they can understand the connections.
I recently read an long and detailed report on EV manufacturing, McKinsey & Co, and that manufacturers are forced to turn to EV because governments are imposing restrictions on ICEV and leave manufacturers no alternative other than to wind down their businesses and leave the industry.
None are profitable, the EVs they produce are sold at a loss subsidised by sales of profitable ICEV. Obviously this loss making situation is not sustainable, how many will be forced to close down when/if ICEV can no longer be sold by government order?
Of course the batteries and system is a substantial production cost factor and designing a vehicle that can cope with significantly more weight than an equivalent tank of liquid fossil fuel to provide the same range.
And consider “carbon credits”, many motor vehicle manufacturers have elected to pay for EV credits from EV manufacturers to satisfy governments until the manufacturers can also manufacture EV. One well known claimed to be profitable EV only manufacturer produces a small profit and that relates to subsidies and credit sales.
Is EV another renewable energy debacle developing?
Just after we manage to harness fusion?
With room temperature super conductors motors will get both smaller and more efficient. We got a better chance of developoing room temperature super conductors than we do of perfecting fusion.
Yes there are improvements, usually in 0.01% level. In other words, not enough to matter. Ditto for batteries.
Unless someone manages to invent an entirely new Period Table, the best combinations have already been tried.
EV’s will never be more than toys for the rich.
Northern Virginia state sector of USA inter-state highway I95 has just experienced a traffic jam delay of 17 hours during a cold period. People have food and water supply problems & some have abandoned their vehicles in the road to find shelter. If all vehicles were electric it would likely be more problematic. Below is a map image of the extensive route of non-moving traffic indicated by red circles with “-” sign in the circle.
If IC vehicle runs out of fuel (engine running to keep warm) it can be refueled on the spot and move on. If electric vehicle’s battery had run down it would have to be moved out of the way and at some time later towed with possible hundreds of other electric cars to the nearest charging station, and queue (wait in line) for hours to recharge. It would be a logistic nightmare.
Haven’t you notice all those ‘recharge your phone’ kits?
Thanks for bringing the I-95 nightmare to the fore.
It’ll be a small miracle if there aren’t cases of or injuries related to hypothermia. Those poor folk were sitting out there all night long in the cold and the dark. The mess that is I-95 also reflects metastasis of the cancer of Big Government.
Sixty years ago, Northern Virginia was rural and gorgeous. Today, it’s hideous.
“Sixty years ago, Northern Virginia was rural and gorgeous. Today, it’s hideous.”
Even 40 years ago it was very rural. I was born in 62, grew up out on the Shenandoah outside Front Royal, and Manassas, VA. Don’t know about Front Royal, but Manassas was unrecognizable to me last time I visited (2009).
Maybe I need to start carrying around a full jerry can of gas…
Standard practise for Australia’s “Outback” driving, I carry 2 x 10-litre cans of diesel but people who drive into even more remote areas carry more and/or have a long range fuel tank installed.
That looks like normal rush hour in NoVa.
The media has been quick to blame Gov elect Youngkin for his slow response to this crisis. Despite the fact that Youngkin won’t be sworn into office til Jan. 15.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/interstate-95-snow-traffic-jam-blame-glenn-youngkin-not-ralph-northam-tucker
Higher density. Sounds like they have done things like having fewer but larger cells. Also probably did things like limit the amount of active cooling for the batteries.
Yes, I have read all about the Mercedes EV range due for release in Australia during 2022, but remember that the quoted range is theoretical and must be discounted for highway speed country road driving, terrain, passenger and luggage load, headwinds, air conditioning or heater, etc.
Even so, the new Mercedes are impressive.
Tesla S long range is all wheel drive and cheaper, if a couple of hundred thousand Australian dollars is cheap for you. But also Tesla build quality and finish is not Mercedes standard.
I would consider buying one if I could afford to spend A$300-500,000 depending on model, 2-wheel or 4-wheel drive and level of accessories.
I understand that just about anything is possible, just throw money.
I remember when business and finance magazines such as Forbes were in the business of reporting on business. Like every rag everywhere now, Forbes is in the business of climate advocacy. More precisely, they’re in the business of climate fascism advocacy.
It’s a no wonder. J-Schools don’t teach journalism, they teach advocacy. Every graduate is a little community organizer for neo-Marxism. This applies to most non-STEM fields as well. Perhaps only education majors are worse.
Are B-Schools still teaching business?
From what I have seen and heard, it is highly questionable.
Documentaries on animal life, the ocean, environment rarely fail to mention “climate change”.
The South African company Sasol produces oil from coal making up about 30% of South Africa’s transport fuel.
“
Production commenced after the UN imposed trade sanctions during the apartheid period, South Africa innovators soon found ways to keep the economy moving.
Forbes got bought out by some “investors” several years ago. Used to be a reliable source of infirmation.
Thanks. When I was young, I read it religiously.
I didn’t realize that the family had bailed out. I was wondering what had happened to it.That explains why the organization has recently been espousing a bunch of crackpot ideas.
B.C. Forbes and Malcolm Forbes must be rolling over in their graves. I’ll bet Steve Forbes is embarrassed by the use of his family’s name.
“This means that they do not only take responsibility for their own emissions, also called Scope 1 and 2, but for all emissions in the value chain. This includes emissions caused by the products made from oil, transport, and so on.”
Following this twisted logic they would also need to take responsibility for other ‘down chain’ pollution … not just ’emissions’. The micro-plastics that shed from Columbia Sportswear clothing are to be considered the responsibility of Big Oil? The road striping paint that disappears every year is not the responsibility of the depts of transportation … it is the responsibility of Big Oil? Tire wear is the responsibility of Big Oil? Big Oil needs to come and pick up your toothbrush when it wears out…?
Right. And just how does Forbes think this is going to play out? Let’s imagine that a whole whackload of woke people buy a whole whackload of shares for a whole whackload of money. Once they get enough power they start to force the oil and gas companies to do stupid woke things. As a result, all the woke investors suddenly notice that all what whackload of investment they made is actually starting to lose money. At this point the woke shareholders suddenly find reasons to allow things to go back to normal so they can make money on their whackload of investments.
Ironically, the losers will not be oil companies. The losers will be the consumers, the masses, priced out of common luxuries and hard-pressed to pay for even the basics — food, clothing, shelter. So it is evident that this author and those following his strategy hate life and hate their fellow travelers on this celestial ball. May he live to personally experience his self-made he*l on earth.
While a little tedious at times, ‘The Sword of Truth” saga portrays their mindset, through analogy, rather well. They are the worshipers of death.
Build Back Better, The Great Reset, New Green Deal: we will not have any assets and we will be happier!!!
So says the non-government organisation World Economic Forum of globalism, associates of the climate hoax octopus of many arms.
Does Jeroen Kraaijenbrink own these stocks? Is this stock manipulation?
The BIG OIL companies mentioned are generally small players on the world stage “Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Occidental Petroleum, ExxonMobil, and Marathon“.
Who are the real BIG OIL producers?
ARAMCO 10 mmboed
Rosneft 4 mmboed
KPC 3 mmboed
NIOC 3 mmboed
CNPC 3 mmboed
Exxon Mobil 2 mmboed
Petrobras 2 mmboed
ADNOC 2 mmboed
Chevron 2 mmboed
PEMEX 2 mmboed
OK, they are influencing maybe 2 of the top ten producers, but that is not going to change global industry much. Saudis, Russians, Kuwaitis, Iranians, Chinese, Brazilians, Emirates, Mexicans… aren’t going to be influenced by greenies.
its the other way around.
Saudis, Russians, Kuwaitis, Iranians, Chinese are actively influencing the greenies.
It’s become a sport for investors, like betting on a horse when the race is fixed.
Who in their right mind thinks that stopping climate change (which also means stopping weather) is a good idea?
It would stop bushfires wouldn’t it, and floods.
sarc.
Liberals don’t know how to create or build things…they just know how to tear down and destroy things. This story is an example of that.
They will need to buy a lot of shares though. How many billions will they need to invest to achieve control? And if they succeed in their goals to wreck the company they will end up losing a lot of money. Then all that will happen is that the assets of the wrecked company will be bought by Aramco or some Chinese entity, achieving precisely – nothing!
In my opinion such wrecking tactics are evidence that greens know they can’t produce a viable alternative to fossil fuel.
Well just like those self immolating EV batteries they’ve really been pushing the engineering limits with wind turbines too. Ramping them up bigger to get around the NIMBY objectors with limited location space and also to overcome the logistics problem with trucking over 75M long blades-
Green Giant: Cypress, GE’s Huge New Onshore Wind Turbine, Comes To Life | GE News
Hence that recent 2017 development and first rollout in September 2018 of two part blades but GE clearly have problems with them now with blade failures in 2 separate locations-
New failure for flagship GE wind turbine as Cypress blade breaks in Germany | Recharge (rechargenews.com)
GE investigates Swedish blade failure – reNews – Renewable Energy News
I wholly endorsed the idea of buying stocks in industries that reliably provide valuable and increasingly in-demand products at good prices. Not sure how that might freeze the climate in some idealized mid 19th century skating rink but then I am not sure I even want to return to a time of crop failure, famine, disease and early death. I kind of like the present version of Earth.
Forbes is kind of like Medium where anybody can post writing on it. They are just looking for clicks.