Woodside Energy hit by huge climate backlash as chair Richard Goyder survives

Richard Goyder has survived a heated Woodside Energy annual meeting but the oil and gas company’s climate strategy was sunk by an extraordinary investor backlash.

The Perth-based business was under pressure in recent weeks after proxy adviser CGI Glass Lewis and a series of investors opposed Mr Goyder’s board re-election and even more shareholders slammed the non-binding climate plan.

Mr Goyder prevailed on Wednesday afternoon but there was a remarkable 58 per cent vote against Woodside’s climate strategy.

The stunning rebuke will force the oil and gas business to rethink how it plans to slash emissions and invest cash in a decarbonising world.

Woodside has pledged $US5 billion ($7.6bn) for low carbon investment by 2030, with about $335 million spent so far.

But many billions more are in the pipeline for oil and gas projects, including Scarborough, Browse and Sunrise off Australia’s northern and western coasts.

The International Energy Agency projected demand for that natural gas — one of the country’s biggest exports — would lift 2.5 per cent this year.

A series of shareholders including Britain’s Legal & General Investment Management and AustralianSuper pledged to vote against the climate plan.

They flagged concerns about the use of offsets rather than abatement to cut carbon and called for Woodside to change an “ambition” for net zero by 2050 to be locked in as a “target”.

Chief executive Meg O’Neill warned that other big oil and gas businesses had walked back from climate goals that were too ambitious.

“We are determined to play our role in addressing climate change,” she said.

“But we won’t make promises that we can’t deliver.

“I give you our commitment that we will set goals and make decisions informed by the available science, in line with our capital allocation framework, and with our commitment to energy security front of mind.”

Mr Goyder said the company was moving from exploring for oil and gas to investing into low carbon opportunities.

“We’d love to invest more in new energy right now, if only we had the customers,” he said.

Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility head of impact Harriet Kater said the scale of the loss was “globally unprecedented”.

Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said eyes were on emissions but rejected the “simplistic notion” that the energy taps could just be turned off.

“No one’s going to thank us if at the end of the day we kill the economy, if people can’t turn their air conditioners on and if we can’t come up with a credible pathway to go through the energy transition,” Mr Cook said.

Disruption

Protest groups twice interrupted the meeting at Perth’s Crown Towers.

About two dozen shareholders and proxies jumped up to sing a rewrite of Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over as they waved their arms in the air.

Mr Goyder sought to continue the meeting, and the group continued singing over a Traditional Owner representative asking questions of Woodside’s board.

The protestors were escorted from the room, but were swiftly followed by three more activists chanting to stop the company’s multibillion-dollar Browse gas export project.

Activist group Disrupt Burrup Hub released a statement claiming responsibility.

“Three campaigners who had entered the AGM as proxy shareholders stood up one by one and yelled the names of Richard Goyder’s four children and Meg O’Neill’s child as part of their protest opposing the Browse Gas expansion,” the statement said.

Ms O’Neill last year pursued restraining orders against a seperate group of activists following a protest outside her family home in August.

A win for Goyder

Mr Goyder — who is set to depart his role as chair of airline Qantas within months — suffered a ‘no’ vote but cruised home for another term at Woodside’s helm.

Just less than 17 per cent of shareholders voted to axe Mr Goyder from Woodside’s board by to the final tally.

He signalled the three-year term to 2027 was likely to be his last, but left room open for those plans to change.

“There may be circumstances in which I would go earlier or stay longer,” Mr Goyder said, noting the company had an unofficial guideline of a decade term limit and he had started in 2017.

Speaking before the polls closed, Mr Goyder said the role of chair in a public company was complex.

“Meg and I have got a very good way of working together, challenging each other for the benefit of the company,” he said.

Mr Goyder said Woodside had also made and effort to refresh the board.

That renewal has included Ashok Belani, who led decarbonisation at oil and gas services business Schlumberger.

Mr Belani’s appointment was set for a comfortable green light.