The shareholder proposal filed by Investors For Paris, a group that aims to hold publicly traded companies accountable for their net-zero promises, calls on
"If a company’s financial viability is dependent on scope 3 emissions being released — as is the case with
The term "Scope 3" refers to emissions that a company is indirectly responsible for, such as the greenhouse gases generated when a customer uses the company's product.
Most major Canadian energy firms currently disclose the emissions they produce themselves in their day-to-day business operations, but have been far more reluctant to take accountability for end-use emissions, such as those produced when consumers burn fossil fuels in their cars.
Including Scope 3 emissions in their climate disclosures would massively increase the size of the carbon footprint that energy companies must report to investors and the public.
But it doesn't provide an accounting of the end use of the fossil fuel products it transports in its pipeline business.
"Many shareholders actually understand that Scope 3 isn't just a greenhouse gas reporting metric, it's actually a trend metric showing where the company is going in terms of adopting and responding to the energy transition," Kenyon said.
"It's a metric that highlights the exposure risk of the company to energy transition."
Scope 3 emissions are an increasing area of focus for shareholder proposals. In the past two years, according to a database by Ceres, an organization which tracks climate-related shareholder resolutions, more than 30 proposals related to Scope 3 disclosures have been brought forward at the general meetings of major North American publicly traded companies.
Investors for
In its response to this year's proposal,
The company said it takes Scope 3 emissions seriously, and in 2021 began reporting the "emissions intensity" of the energy it transports via pipeline. But it said there have been no clear regulatory guidelines or widely accepted methodologies developed to report on end-use emissions from products that
"We will proceed with further enhancements to our Scope 3 reporting where accepted definitions for our business exist and decision-useful data is available," the company said.
In urging shareholders to vote against the proposal,
"Shareholder proposals have become part of the toolkit employed by certain environmental activists to gain publicity in pursuit of their objectives," the company stated.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
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