Woodside ASX:WDS shareholders vote against climate plan, re-elect chairman Richard Goyder [Video]

Australian oil and gas giant Woodside has been rocked by the biggest investor uprising ever seen against a major emitter’s approach to climate change as 58 per cent of its shareholders rejected the company’s decarbonisation plans as inadequate.

The country’s top producer of the fossil fuels and its high-profile chairman, Richard Goyder, faced extensive criticism at Woodside’s annual shareholder meeting in Perth on Wednesday for refusing to do more to align the business with hastening international efforts to restrain rising global temperatures.

The Woodside investor revolt is significant because it is the first time a majority of shareholders at a publicly traded company have defied the board in a so-called “Say on Climate” vote over the credibility of its plans to continue operating in a carbon-constrained world.

While the vote is not binding, its 58 …