Already a subscriber?One of the country’s most prominent brokers has accused CGI Glass Lewis of losing objectivity and acting like an anti-industry activist after it recommended against the re-election of Woodside Energy chairman Richard Goyder.
“Glass Lewis have still not explained why they seek to entrench a gender pay gap by applying a harder standard on remuneration for the only female CEO of a large Australian energy company, which they don’t apply to male CEOs,” he said. In a note to its clients, Institutional Shareholder Services said Woodside was responding to shareholders, noted it was the first company in Australia to put a second climate report to a shareholder vote and added that it had committed to submit a climate plan to shareholders every three years. It also noted Woodside’s new target,, to take final investment decisions on clean energy products by 2030 that had the capacity to abate 5 million tonnes a year of CO₂ emissions.
On Woodside’s latest climate plan, however, Institutional Shareholder Services said it “does not appear to be sufficiently complete and rigorous”. It noted Woodside had only an “aspiration” to reach net-zero for direct emissions by 2050 or sooner, but did not have a plan to do so. The target hinging on technology developments that may not materialise.It also noted that Woodside has no “tangible” plans to reduce Scope 3 emissions, primarily those emitted by its customers from using its products.