ExxonMobil shareholders vote down climate resolutions

ExxonMobil shareholders sided with the oil giant on climate change at the company's annual meeting Wednesday, rejecting shareholder resolutions to push the company in a greener direction.

ExxonMobil won on three separate measures that directly addressed the oil giant's climate policies and also prevailed on a number of other shareholder resolutions that sponsors had linked to climate change during a more than three-hour meeting in Dallas, Texas, near ExxonMobil's headquarters.

The closest vote among the climate-related measures was over a resolution proposed by New York state's retirement fund to require ExxonMobil to perform an annual climate "stress test" of how changing public policies affect its assets and long-term business prospects.

That measure scored support from 38.2 percent of shares, compared with 61.8 percent against, according to preliminary results released at the meeting.

Only 18.5 percent of votes favored a resolution that ExxonMobil acknowledge the imperative of ensuring that global temperatures do not rise more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial level, a central goal of the 2015 Paris climate pact of nearly 200 governments.

A third proposal to direct the company to appoint an expert on climate change to the board of directors drew 20.9 percent of the votes.

ExxonMobil has long been a lightning rod for criticism by environmentalists over its position on climate change.

Advocates of the climate measures had hoped to win a majority of support in the wake of news reports that accused the oil giant of waging a deceitful publicity war against climate science.