Shareholders in oil majors BP and Shell representing €1.4tn have filed resolutions requesting more information from the companies on how they will continue to create shareholder value as global oil and gas demand falls.
Activist investor group Follow This, which co-filed the resolutions, said they mark a “strategic shift” by focusing on financial performance rather than Paris-aligned emissions reduction targets.
Follow This founder Mark Van Baal said that the resolutions are intended to “focus attention on the financial unsustainability of fossil fuel models”.
“Every shareholder needs to know how the board will create shareholder value in declining demand scenarios projected by the International Energy Agency,” added Van Baal.
In 2020, when oil demand fell, BP and Shell cut their dividends by 50 per cent and 66 per cent respectively, Follow This points out.
The electricity era
The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook published in November 2025 showed that global energy demand rose by more than 2 per cent in 2024, with fossil fuels accounting for nearly four-fifths of total energy demand.
However, in its stated policies scenario, which it defines as “the prevailing direction of travel for the energy system”, demand for both oil and coal is expected to flatten around 2030.
“We will still use oil and gas, but we are entering the electricity era,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said at the time.
“The central challenge Shell faces today is uncertainty,” Arjan Keizer, a former Shell employee who co-filed the resolution, wrote on LinkedIn. In the context of oil and gas demand peaking then weakening in the next decade, “long term value is not put at risk by engaging seriously with the transition, but by failing to do so”, Keizer added.
If oil and gas companies do not “quickly redirect investments towards low-carbon energies”, their shareholders will “face significant losses in value”, said Vincent Kaufmann, chief executive of the Ethos Foundation, which also signed the resolution.
Along with other fossil fuel companies, both BP and Shell have changed course on their renewable energy pledges in recent years to double down on oil and gas investments.
A tumultuous time
Oil prices fell by nearly 20 per cent in 2025 as producers’ supply exceeded demand. Further oil market turmoil is expected after US President Donald Trump arrested Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in a bid to gain access to the world’s largest oil reserves.
In a trading statement issued on Wednesday, BP said it would write down its green energy businesses by between $4 and $5bn this year after what it described as a “misplaced” pivot to clean energy.
The company also said its fourth-quarter gas sales would be $100mn-$300mn lower than in Q3, its crude oil sales would be $200mn-$400mn lower, and that its oil and gas production was flat, with oil trading “weak”.
BP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“As with any resolution that meets the procedural requirements, the board will consider it and respond with a recommendation to shareholders in our notice of meeting” for the annual meeting, a spokesperson for Shell told Sustainable Views.