Shell (LON: SHEL) beat analyst forecasts with earnings of $7.7bn in Q1, as the top financial boss asks shareholder support for the oil giant’s reduced climate targets.
Adjusted earnings had been expected in the region of $6.46bn, but the oil giant’s strong oil trading and higher refining margins.
The firm plans to spend $3.5bn in share buybacks over the coming three months to bolster its share price.
It comes as the supermajor gets ready for its AGM later this month, where it will face down criticism of its watered-down emissions targets.
In March, Shell reduced targets for customer emissions from its products, known as Scope 3, for 2030 and “retired” its goal of a 45% reduction by 2035 (against a 2016 baseline) citing “uncertainty in the pace of change in the energy transition.
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Activist shareholder group Follow This is leading a resolution backed by 27 investors owning around 5% of Shell urging the company to set tighter Scope 3 targets aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement.
Reuters reported this week that investor proxy advisory Glass Lewis is backing the resolution.
CFO Sinead Gorman’s first quarter speech has urged shareholders not to support this move on Tuesday 21.
She said: “We ask our shareholders to vote against the alternative resolution. By doing so, our shareholders will be endorsing this management team, our Board and Shell’s aim of being THE investment case through the energy transition.”
Ms Gorman added that shareholders should instead back Shell’s Energy Transition update, which includes the reduced target of cutting customer emissions from oil products sold by shell by 15-20% by 2030.
