Citi banker: Exxon rejected net-zero pitch after proxy loss

Exxon Mobil Corp. rejected a pitch from a Citigroup Inc. senior investment banker to commit to a target for net-zero emissions even after shareholders staged a revolt over the company’s climate policy.

Stephen Trauber, cohead of the bank’s newly created natural resources and clean-energy transition group, said he met with the oil giant’s executive committee right after it lost three board seats to an activist who was pushing for just such a commitment. Trauber said he was urging the oil giant to reconsider its position on the net-zero pledge.

“They looked at me and said, ‘That’s great, but we don’t know how we would get there. We can’t commit to that if we don’t have a plan to get there,’ ” he said Thursday during the webcast of an event hosted by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Energy Studies and law firm Baker Botts LLP. “I assured them most companies today who have committed to net zero don’t have a plan on how to get there, but they’re working to get there.”

When asked to respond to Trauber’s account, Exxon said in a statement that it routinely evaluates its climate commitments and will provide updates on its strategy “to reflect the changing landscape.” The company has not committed to any net-zero goals but has previously announced various emission-reduction plans including the cutting of as much as 50 percent of methane intensity by 2025.

Trauber’s comments offer a rare glimpse inside Exxon’s inner sanctum as it grapples with intense external pressure to follow the example of European rivals Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc, which have pledged to eliminate on a net basis not only their own emissions of greenhouse gases but those of their suppliers and customers as well.

European industry giants are targeting net-zero emissions by 2050, including those of their customers, while many of their U.S. counterparts have not made similar pledges, even though they’re facing the same kind of shareholder pressure. The small activist investor Engine No. 1 sent shock waves across the energy investing landscape in the spring when Exxon shareholders voted in three of its nominees to the 12member board of directors with the aim of pushing for a stronger emissions pledge.